How Wayne Gretzky gave Doug Gilmour a hockey lesson

When people hear the name Doug Gilmour, they immediately think of an NHL Hall of Famer with 1,400 NHL games and a Stanley Cup. But early in his career, he was taught a real lesson by Wayne Gretzky…

Doug Gilmour was never the biggest player in the NHL. Standing 5’10” and weighing 176 lbs, he was forced to develop other skills to handle the big, physical play in the NHL of the 1980s.

Doug Gilmour nickname

After entering the league in 1983 with the St. Louis Blues, Gilmour developed a look that earned him a nickname: Charlie—something he wrote about in a letter to his younger self for The Players’ Tribune in 2016.
“You are going to have to become a little bit of a psycho out there. You’ll adopt a certain wild-eyed stare. This will inspire a nickname, actually. I don’t want to scare you, but the guys are going to start calling you ‘Charlie.’ This is short for Charles Manson. You’ll still be a skinny little rat with a mullet. It fits,” Gilmour wrote.
But he also learned something important from Wayne Gretzky.

Taught a lesson by Wayne Gretzky

While playing for the Blues, Doug Gilmour had to face Wayne Gretzky when the Edmonton Oilers came to town. This was the dynasty-era Oilers, who won five Cups in seven seasons, and although Gilmour was very talented, he was blown away by Gretzky.
“Luckily, it’s around the holidays and they’ll have had a little party the night before. Going into the third, you’ll be up 5–2, dominating.
Then they’ll wake up and decide to play for real.
Gretzky will spin on you once. Spin on you twice. The third time he spins, you’ll fall right on your ass and he’ll be off to the races.
They’ll win 6–5. Welcome to greatness,” Gilmour wrote.
In the article, Gilmour also gave himself a little pro tip:
“Learn everything you can from how he sees the game. How he manipulates space. How he hides the puck behind the net. How he draws defenders to him—not just one, but two or three—to free up a teammate.”