@Horace
That’s right, Gretzky was physically unimposing compared to other players. He looked like a skinny kid. As well, he was not all that fast compared to other players. He was however agile and seemed have an uncanny ability to know exactly where the play was going and be at the right spot at the right time to take over control of the action. Because of his physical limitations Sather always had to make sure goon enforcers like Semenko and McSorley were on the ice with Gretzky to act as deterrents. Ovechkin and now, McDavid, are big and fast enough that they don’t need enforcers to protect them. That and the fact, that the NHL has cleaned up and sanctioned a lot of the brute force gooning that had come to characterize the game back in the Gretzky era.
