Throwback: Wayne Gretzky passes Gordie Howe's record for goals scored in the NHL.

Gretzky breaks the record on this day 26 years ago.

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HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
 Throwback: Wayne Gretzky passes Gordie Howe's record for goals scored in the NHL.
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The National Hockey League may be completely shut down right now, at least as far as the 2019 - 2020 NHL regular season is concerned, but that does not mean that we have no way of enjoying our beloved sport of hockey. Over the last few days we've taken you back to some iconic moments in NHL history but today is a very special day in that regard given just how much it means to hockey history. 

Today, March 23rd, is of course the day in which NHL legend Wayne Gretzky became the all time leading goal scorer in the National Hockey League when he surpassed the total previously set by another NHL legend, Gordie Howe. It was an incredibly special moment for all of the hockey fans in Los Angeles at the time, Gretzky was playing for the Kings when he passed Howe's record, and it was incredibly special for the hockey world as a whole. Although some may have prefered to see Howe, otherwise known as Mr. Hockey, reign atop the record books for all of time there was perhaps no more fitting player to take his place that Gretzky. 

A young Wayne Gretzky had grown up idolizing Howe as the greatest player to have ever played the game and I have no doubt that if you asked Wayne who he would rank as the greatest hockey player of all time the answer would still be Gordie Howe to this day. It was no small feat on the part of Wayne Gretzky to pass Howe however, requiring a staggering 802 goals to capture the crown as the NHL's leading scorer, a total that very few players in history will ever even get close to reaching. Of course Wayne Gretzky was no ordinary player during his time in the NHL, he is called "The Great One" for a reason after all, and he would go on to add several more goals during his career in the NHL, eventually finishing with 894 career goals, a total that may never be surpassed. 

Of course we may be back here in a few years discussing how Alexander Ovechkin surpassed the totals set forth by Gretzky but that is a chapter that has yet to be written, and could very well never be written at all.


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