The Lord Of The Rinks

This is beginning to cause some strain. Despite his unflagging politeness, last week Gretzky began dodging interview requests for the first time. The day before the Montreal game, he snapped at Oiler publicity man Bill Tuele, "What else can they possibly ask me? I've told them everything I know." But calls keep coming, as many as 100 a day, including one last week from a woman in Los Angeles. "Where's that Wayne?" she asked Tuele. "He's such a cutie. I just want to rape him." The next day, the Oilers announced that all Gretzky interviews must be done in the locker room.

In part, the arrangement is designed to help avoid a repeat of a five-game winless streak Edmonton went through on a road trip in mid-January. All told, 132 reporters requested interviews with Gretzky during that Eastern swing. Between the media crush and playing five games in five different cities in seven nights, Gretzky was pale and tired. At one point he told Allen Abel of the Toronto Globe and Mail, "I bleed, too. People think my day lasts 30 hours. Years ago, my father used to tell me, 'Either go out and practice now or you'll be getting up at six in the morning the rest of your life to go to work.' Now I'm getting up at 5:30 to catch airplanes. We laugh about that a lot."

Last week Gretzky was still laughing. So were the Oilers.