By Ted Cox
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Still, hockey has a little bit farther to go before it returns to its prestrike vitality. As a barometer, we mention that earlier this month, for the first time in our life, we were able to buy tickets for an appearance by Wayne Gretzky the week before he was to come to Chicago. It’s true that Gretzky, while still great, is no longer the draw he was. His team, the Los Angeles Kings, finished well under .500 last season, and they are playing true to that form this season. Yet Gretzky himself is playing his best hockey since a back injury threatened his career a few years ago. He came to Chicago earlier this month on a hot streak that had seen him perform at close to peak levels: he’d had three goals and an amazing 11 assists in the previous six games, which had lifted him to third in the National Hockey League in scoring. And, of course, this was on top of the 814 goals, 1,692 assists, and 2,506 points he had entered the season with–all NHL records.
In years past before his back injury, whatever few tickets remained for a Gretzky appearance were sold out the instant they went on sale. Truth be told, our ability to buy tickets the week before his sole Chicago appearance this season did not establish a market that was all that much softer than before. It may have been that we bought the last two tickets available; we were certainly in two of the seats farthest from the ice. We were in the last row of the second balcony in the far corner behind the net the Hawks would defend in the first and third periods. And while the United Center has a reputation as a pristine, overcomfortable arena for hockey, with none of the delightful claustrophobia of the Chicago Stadium (God rest its soul), we found ourselves nestled right up against a flange of the roof–offering an obstructed view of the banners above–so that our yells, cheers, and applause reverberated right back on us in a way that almost felt like the old homestead. For all the thrill of seeing one of the great athletes in sports for the first time, just as exciting was the discovery (this being our first trip to the United Center for a hockey game) that Chicago’s best fans have survived the journey across Madison from the old arena to the new.
That cheered the fans in our section, including one leather-lunged guy who, the next time Gretzky touched the puck, yelled out, “Hit ‘im! Hit Gretzky! He’s a faggot!” Chortles all around for that witticism.
When play resumed Gretzky got the Kings back in the game right away, drawing traffic to one side of the net and then making a nifty pass through traffic to Tony Granato on the other side of the crease. Granato slapped the puck into the wide-open net. There were a few tense minutes until Nicholls tipped in a Chris Chelios slap shot to put the Hawks up 4-2. “Go back to LA ya dick smokes!” shouted the leather-lung homophobe down the aisle. Yet a few minutes later, when “YMCA” played on the loudspeakers, who was singing along, complete with hand gestures, but that guy.
