Mario I always hated. Both him and Gretz were divers but Mario was just so big, it was even more sickening. Haaaaarred Mario. Was still an amazing player though.
I agree about Gretz. He was larger than the game.he just played a totally different game than anyone else on the ice. When he was out there, it almost felt like he had already DVRd the game, watched it 10 times to memorize every sequence, then was just to anticipate what he knew was going to happen and flip the whole thing around. It was wild. Never saw it before nor ever since. Still always remember being about 11 years old and just having my eyes glued to him when my dad would take me to see him when he was in town.
Sometimes we downplay that era because now everyone is bigger, faster, stronger. Goalie equipment is better. Harder to score. No one was smarter though. No one thought the game 5 steps ahead like that really. We look back now and take for granted going behind the net and using the goal itself as an office to pass from in front because it’s common place. Or going into space rather than just puck chasing. Or coming down and seeing the goalie way out of his crease so faking the shot, going around, and just slotting it into a vacated net. But no one did stuff like that. That was all invented by Gretzky.