By Brian Ekberg

　　Design by Collin Oguro

　　Glendale Arena, home of the Phoenix Coyotes, doesn't really look much like a hockey arena. In fact, beyond its vaguely boxy shape and a sandstone pigment that blends well with the arid surroundings, Glendale Arena's most defining characteristic seems to be not what comprises it, but rather what's being constructed next door: the new Arizona Cardinals' stadium, a gorgeously modern, segmented structure that will be the home of Super Bowl XLII on February 3, 2008.

　　Still, we aren't in Glendale to talk football--and this being Cardinals country, who could blame us? Instead, we are arriving at Glendale Arena to talk hockey with the man who many think is the best hockey player who ever lived, Wayne Gretzky. He also happens to be partial owner and head coach of the Phoenix Coyotes. We are there to check out a morning practice, speak with Gretz, and eventually watch the Coyotes go up against the Southeast division's Atlanta Thrashers, who are making a West Coast swing through Anaheim, Phoenix, and San Jose.

　　We arrive near the service entrance at the back of the arena and are ushered in through a small door. Once indoors, we pass by a small security office and into the media hospitality lounge that connects directly to the lower floor of the Glendale Arena, where, if you looked closely, you could see flashes of brick red, white, and black streaking by. Walk through the tunnel a bit farther and the chill of the arena takes you back for a second. You're indoors, but you're breathing cold air, and those red, white, and black streaks are Coyotes players like Mike Johnson, Tyson Nash, Mike Ricci, and Shane Doan getting warmed up during their morning skate.

　　Entranced by the inherent coolness of being in an empty arena while a real, live NHL team goes through its morning workout, we grab the first available seats near the glass. Just before taking our seats, we notice that Gretzky is sitting up in the stands about 10 rows behind us, watching the practice out of the corner of his eye while deep in discussion with members of his staff. Today is game day, and Gretzky isn't taking the ice with the team to run drills or coach specific points. His position as one of the great ambassadors of his sport means he has obligations that extend well beyond coaching the Coyotes, including today's meet and greet with media where he'll be talking about Gretzky NHL 06, the latest in the long string of hockey games that have used his name and face on its cover.

　　"Unfortunately my kids, who are 15, 13, and 5, can beat me pretty much blindfolded. As I told the kids, 'I only built the game and made the game. I haven't perfected the game yet.'"

　　- Wayne Gretzky

　　Gretzky looks cool as he sits down for his first interview with ESPN. He's wearing a white-collared shirt and a black leather jacket, and he appears professional and relaxed, but with more than a few things on his mind. The interview begins and the reporter starts by asking Gretz some basic questions about his new game. Pat questions and pat answers that don't really offer much insight. Gretzky sounds like he's on autopilot here, but it won't take long before his authoritative side comes out. A few noisemakers in the back of the media lounge unwittingly interrupt the interview, and without hesitation, Gretzky lets out a tremendous "Shhh!" which silences everyone in the room. This isn't Gretzky, the nice-guy Los Angeles King. This is Gretzky, the partial owner and coach of the team. This is Gretzky--the boss--shushing everyone.

　　Things get back under control, and Gretzky works his way through his television interviews--ESPN, then Fox, then a quick local radio spot--and then finally sits down for a roundtable discussion with us. We don't have a lot of time with him, so the challenge is to make every question count. The biggest news in the NHL this year--beyond the return of the league, of course--is the rule changes that have been enacted to open the game up, improve scoring chances, and restrict the kinds of hooking and grabbing that hampered the sport in the past. How does Gretzky feel about the new rules, and have the new rules changed the way he coaches?

　　The Phoenix Coyotes running through their morning drills in preparation for the evening's game against Atlanta.

　　"The game is so much better today because of the rules changes," he said." I can't speak enough about the impact that we have made in getting rid of the hooking and holding. Now [the players and referees are] still finding their way as far as true battles in front of the net, in the corners, you know. That's still got to be part of our game. But the hooking and holding between the blue lines, we're slowly weeding that out of our game. As I've said this, not only to you guys, but also to the National Hockey League, we really have to make sure that we're hard on the 15-, 16-, 17-year-old kids, college kids, junior kids, so that by the time they get to this level they know that if you do this, or you grab a guy, you're going to get a penalty. So they'll stop doing it. Now, I commend the players, and the coaches, and the referees for how everyone's gotten together and tried to clean it up as quickly as possible. But three, four, five years from now, it should be totally out of our game. It should be totally instinct and the game will be a much better game because the finesse players are allowed to play with the passing and the grace and speed the game is supposed to be played at. But nobody has to take away from the physical aspect of the game, because the hitting, and physical play, and the battles are part of the game. Simple as that."

The Great One

　　"There wasn't one bad thing I could say about any of the three. They were all special and unique. Of course, being in Edmonton when I was young and winning championships. The greatest year, the most fulfilling year I had in my career maybe was the year we went to the finals with the Kings, and to help be part of an organization that really did build up and try to sell the sport of hockey in California. And then, I knew I'd like New York, but I didn't know I'd love it as much as I did. It was the greatest three years of my life there. They were all special."

　　As great as it is sitting down with a hockey legend and talking general puck, it's hard not to get his thoughts about the game on which his name and face appear. It isn't long before Gretz mentions that, when it comes to video game hockey, he's not The Great One at all. In fact, he's regularly trounced by his kids in his own game.

　　Gretzky just made the game. Don't expect him to be any good at it.

　　"When I grew up, the closest thing we had to this kind of a game was tabletop hockey. We've progressed to actually having a game that's similar or close to that of the National Hockey League, or close as it can be without actually physically playing. Unfortunately my kids, who are 15, 13, and 5, can beat me pretty much blindfolded. As I told the kids, 'I only built the game and made the game. I haven't perfected the game yet.'"

　　After our all-too-brief time with Gretzky was over, we had another treat in store: a sit-down discussion with Darren Pang, former Chicago Blackhawk goalie, ESPN NHL commentator, and current color man for the Phoenix Coyotes. Goalies tend to be a bit smaller than the other guys on the ice, but Panger is diminutive even for netminders, standing at just 5'5". Our first question for the former goalie had to do with a subject on the minds of most NHL goalies these days: the trapezoid. This year's NHL rules enacted a trapezoid-shaped area behind the net. It's only in that oddly shaped area that goalies are allowed to handle the puck--touch the puck outside and it's a penalty. How does a former goalie like Pang feel about the rule?

　　"It would have been a hard adjustment for me to get used to," Pang said. "And I've noticed that a lot of the goalies have difficulty knowing when to go and when not to go. But I think that, at the end of the day, I think it's worked out really, really well. At the beginning I really thought, 'Why take away an ability of a goaltender like [Martin] Brodeur, or [Marty] Turco, or [Rick] DiPietro and stifle them?' But now I see that those same goalies can make plays, but at the same time, it's making the forecheck just a little bit more consistent. And teams that are terrible at dumping the puck in can now at least have a chance to get it back."

　　But does the trapezoid feel artificial to him?

　　Whether making color commentary in the Coyotes' broadcast booth or as part of the virtual crew in Gretzky NHL '06, Darren Pang always adds excitement to the game.

　　"It's funny, at first, yes," he said. "But the more you look at it, you think it does make some sense. So, no...I think changes are sometimes pretty good. This isn't one that has eliminated a goalie playing the puck. I used to get frustrated when Dominick Hasek used to go to the corner, fake like he played the puck, and then he'd interfere with the player, then he'd fall, and then it caused a commotion. And you're like, 'Is that really necessary?' It was his style and it was an advantage for him. And there was never a call against him for interference. So I think this has kind of fixed that part of the game and some of the embellishments that the goalies used to have as well."

　　Furthermore, Pang thinks there's very little coaching involved when it comes to letting goalies adjust to the trapezoid. Instead, it's more about letting them figure things out for themselves. "I don't think there's any coaching at all," he said. "I think the goalies that played in the [AHL], they had a better idea of it. We watched (early on) Curtis Joseph at the beginning in training camp, and he was very uncertain of where to go. He didn't play in the American League last year. Mathieu Garon [LA King's goalie who spent last year playing for the AHL's Manchester Monarchs] was playing for LA and he knew exactly where to go, when he could handle the puck. There was a significant difference in the two guys and how confident they were."

　　Coyotes' defenseman Zybnek Michalek takes a huge slapshot near the blueline.

　　With the interviews complete, we get to kill a few hours before returning to the Glendale Arena to watch Gretzky's Coyotes battle the Atlanta Thrashers. The game started off in lethargic fashion, with no goals scored in the first period. The Thrashers got the scoring started early in the second period to take a 2-0 lead, but wouldn't be able to hold on to that lead long, as the Coyotes scored five unanswered goals in the second and third periods (including a three-point performance from Mike Johnson) to take the win and send the Thrashers packing, much to the delight of the howling fans in the Coyotes' stands. Watching Phoenix come back in dramatic fashion, altering its strategy to deal with an insistent Atlanta offense, we were reminded of something Gretzky had said earlier in the day about the expectations of his coaching performance.

　　"I'm going to be judged on my winning and losing record. But that's OK. As I said to someone the other day, I'm going to be judged winning and losing championships, and that's the way it should be. But what I do as a coach has no effect on what I did as a player. What I did as a player, and the impact I had for the game, and the records and championships I have, that's done. It's gone. It's history. Nobody can ever take that away. So to become a bad coach doesn't mean that it ruins what I did over here. This is a new challenge for me, a new chapter, and I look forward to the challenge. So far, it's been better than I anticipated. I truly love it."

　　We suspect Phoenix fans feel the same way.