The Ben Mulroney Show - Ben speaks with Wayne Gretzky about Alexander Ovechkin breaking his record

Episode Date: April 7, 2025

Guests and Topics: -Ben speaks with Wayne Gretzky about Alexander Ovechkin breaking his record with Guest: Wayne Gretzky, The Great One, holder of 55 NHL records If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! https://globalnews.ca/national/program/the-ben-mulroney-show Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send in Wilson on the flank, cross eyes, Ovechkin fires! Score! The chasing days are done! Alex Ovechkin is the greatest goal scorer in the history of the NHL! And with that, the baton was passed. Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals broke Wayne Gretzky's NHL goals record with 895. He's a great goal scorer, a great player, but he is absolutely not the great one. We're joined now by not only the one who goes by that moniker, the great one, but in my humble opinion, one of the great living Canadians, and I will

die on that hill. Please welcome to the Ben Mulroney show, Wayne Gretzky. Wayne, thank you so much for taking time out of your schedule to join us here on the show. Yeah, thank you so much. It's been a whirlwind few days. Obviously, we started in Washington. And after the game, I went out for dinner with Kirk Muller and his wife and I asked him why they didn't put Alex on for the empty net goal. He could have scored easily and had a hat trick. Kirk said that Alex didn't want to score the 95th goal, 895, in an empty net. I said I would have been jumping over the boards. I wouldn't have heard. But it was pretty surreal. And then obviously after Friday night, my wife and I and my son drove into the city.

And it's kind of unique because yesterday morning I was walking around with my son and I said, you know, it feels like the day I retired, I remember we played a Sunday afternoon game and I was walking around Manhattan, you know, so excited and yet kind of nervous. And I said, I kind of got that same feeling today. Really? This of what I had the last game I ever played in the NHL. Really?

Huh? Yeah. It was a special day. Yeah. Listen, people ask me about it. Of course, my friends have been asking me about it for a year. This is the greatest thing for sports. It's great for hockey, great for Alex and the Washington Capitals. And I thought the NHL and the Capitals were really special yesterday and how they handled it. It was really, really, I was touched to be part of it.

And I wore Gordie Howe's pin because I don't want everybody to forget about Gordie Howe. He's the greatest player ever. But I love that you said that your entire career, your entire life that in your mind, Gordie Howe will forever be the greatest hockey player ever. But at what point in his career, I mean, do you remember the moment

where the conversation started about, you know what, this O career, I mean, do you remember the moment where the conversation started? But you know what this this Ovechkin guy, he may be on pace to break this record. Do you remember that moment? I don't think I remember the exact moment. But when he got within 100, I said, OK, this guy gets 35, 40 goals a year. He's really consistent. I remember he was at 797 and he went two or three games without a goal. And I called him and I said,

Alex, I've been watching you play. You gotta just relax. You're gonna get to 800 so easily. You're gonna get to 900. As a matter of fact, they told him yesterday when he broke the record, I said, hey, do yourself a favor, don't stop, get to 900, be the first guy ever to get to 900 goals, it's great for the game and you're

going to be so proud of it. But listen, I was just happy to be there. I loved it. People ask me all the time, does it bother you? I'm like, what's there? Why would I be bothered? Well, you also have 55 other records to your name so. They're dwindling I told Sidney Rosby the other day I said oh my goodness I said there goes another one but you know how great is Sidney and Alex been for the NHL both for the respective clubs obviously Pittsburgh and Washington and the NHL, but Sydney for Canada and what he's done for Canadians and Alex, what he's done for Russia.

It's just really, really special. Yeah. Is there one record of the 55 that, you know, listen, let's assume they all get broken one day, which is probably impossible, but is there one that, I don't know, holds a special place in your heart? Yeah. Well, listen, first of all, I remember the year I got 92 goals. There was a reporter

in Hamilton that for whatever reason, he didn't have a kinship with me, let's say. And I remember when I got 92 goals, he said, you know, he's a good goal scorer, but Joe Malone got 44 goals in 22 games in 1926. And I remember my roommate, Kevin Loosa, and I started laughing about it. Um, so some records are just probably improbable, but I think for me, and I've said this to a lot of friends, my, my most special record was 50 goals and 39 games. I got a chance last night to sit or yesterday afternoon, sit with Brian Trotche a couple hours before the game, him and I, and we were talking and you know, I said, you know, when Mike bossy got 1550,

I thought as a kid, wow, that's almost impossible. But I don't know unless a lot of things change, a lot of rule changes, 50 goals in 38 games would be the record I think is one of the hardest ones to beat. Hey Wayne, for many people, sports has always been an escape from the news and from politics. Hockey itself played at a time when tensions with Russia at an all time high with the Summit Series.

A Russian just broke your record. Take me into the locker room and talk to me at a time when tensions with Russia at an all time high with the summit series, a Russian just broke your record. Take me into the locker room and talk to me about how players drown out everything that doesn't matter in order to focus on the game. Yeah, well, first of all, when I went in the locker room last night with Alex, I didn't look at him as a Russian. I looked at him as a NHL hockey player and a guy that's been tremendous in the city of Washington and been great for the NHL.

And we always, believe it or not, we really never talk politics in the locker room. That's never, we watch basketball, we watch baseball, we talk about the Blue Jays, we talk about the New York Yankees, hockey players, we just, that's never on the docket. It's just something that, you know, we stay in our lane, you know, Prime Minister and the President don't tell us how to play hockey and we don't tell them how to do politics, right? Yeah. And, you know, I think in the 80ies, we didn't have a big rivalry with the

U S it was more, uh, Russia. And that started in 72 with Espozito and Bobby Clark and Paul Henderson and all those guys. And after the 87 Canada cup, I remember sitting there and I said, if I had one dream left in hockey, it would be to be able to do a Summit Series and play four games in Canada and then go over to that time, the Soviet Union, and play four more games like they did in 72. But over the years, since 1978 when I played on Canada's world junior team, I got to know Igor Larry Onov

and they're proud of their country and they wanted to come over to the NHL properly. Him and Fedasov and Krutov and Makarov, Kasetonov, they all came over properly. They didn't want to defect. They came over legally. They came over, and they were probably guys that opened the door for a guy like Alex Kovetskin to play in the NHL. But honestly, we never talked anything political. We never asked them about living in Russia. That was just never something we did. We're human beings.

We all get along, and that's all we wanted. And yet, does it register with you, Wayne, that there are people out there with political agendas who use your name to further their own, whatever they have on the horizon. They had, does that register with you? Yeah, that's okay. You know, I always say to my kids, you know, I've got five American kids, seven American grandchildren, an American grandchildren, American wife, 103

year old American mother-in-law. And I always tell them every day, you be as proud of the United States of America as I am to be a Canadian. And that's what your grandfather would have wanted. And so you know what, I don't worry about those kinds of things because you can't make everybody happy. But trust me, I have no political power with the prime minister or the president.

That's between those two guys and that's why you hold elections. And that's why people get to do what they wanna do and say what they wanna say. But trust me, I have no polar power with either the prime minister or the president. Can you imagine me telling your dad what to do when he was your prime minister?

Your dad would have laughed at me. You know that. Yeah, I would have loved to be there for that conversation, Wayne. Hey, Wayne, I want to thank you so much. I know how busy you are. I know what this means to so many Canadians. And I just thank you for taking time. Thank you for the class that you've shown.

Thank you that all you've done for hockey and for Canada, as well as for me personally, I really appreciate it. And I hope you come back to the show again soon. I will. I would love to come on your show again. And please give all our love from my wife, Jan and I, to your mother and your family. I will.

And I thought it was so cute yesterday that Colleen Howe had given my wife a gift when I broke Gordy's record. She kept the tradition going. She got Alex something really special for his wife. So that's one of the great things about our game. Wayne Gretzky, thank you so much. All right, man.

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