Five Questions With Wayne Gretzky - Cigar Aficionado March/April 2025

[JohnS]

The March/April edition of Cigar Aficionado magazine will feature the greatest ice hockey player of all time, Wayne Gretzky. Cigar Aficionado have released a teaser 6-minute video featuring five questions related to the great man's ice hockey career. The video is below. Just don't ask me what Wayne is smoking!

[Cigar Surgeon]

Cigar Aficionado could not have picked a worse possible time for that cover.  

[Hammer Smokin']

Oh I have five questions all right:

1) Why have you not picked up your Order of Canada? Does it not hold meaning?

2) Why do you get your wife to speak for you?

3) Why do you get Bobby Orr to speak for you? 

4) Why did you wear Blue and gave the Team USA bench the wave and thumbs up when you were "supposed" to be Canada's representative at 4 Nations Cup? 

5) Finally, and most importantly, how embarrassed do you think Walter is of you? 

[JohnS]

1 hour ago, Hammer Smokin' said:

Oh I have five questions all right:

Haha...can you imagine David Savona asking those questions? Too funny! 😂

[Puros Y Vino]

5 hours ago, Cigar Surgeon said:

Cigar Aficionado could not have picked a worse possible time for that cover.  

Yeah. I'll be skipping that issue for sure. 

[riderpride]

Modify that statue from 99 to 97.

I had a full box of these bad boys saved for ~36 years and tossed it in the bin a few weeks back.

@JohnS- I appreciate the post. Sorry to troll.

Cheers!

[MrBirdman]

I didn’t know this controversy was a thing. Amazing how keeping up with who’s outraged at who is practically a full time job these days. 

[riderpride]

28 minutes ago, MrBirdman said:

I didn’t know this controversy was a thing. Amazing how keeping up with who’s outraged at who is practically a full time job these days. 

It all depends on your news feed 😆 

Cheers!

[Hammer Smokin']

You aren't going to learn what you don't want to know...

[ChanceSchmerr]

On 3/25/2025 at 8:20 AM, Puros Y Vino said:

Yeah. I'll be skipping that issue for sure. 

Me as well. The guy's silence on....everything!...happening in his native land is a damning indictment.

I've always been a Mark Messier guy, through and through. It's even why I've been a NY Rangers fan for over 30 years, despite being a proud and unapologetic Canadian. More to the point - Mark's in the same category as Wayne - Canadian player who then went south to make his fortune. The differences are:

1. Mark actually won a ring in the US (1994 forever!)
2. Mark actually went to his Order of Canada ceremony to receive the honor
3. Mark pays equal respect to his Oilers career and his NY Rangers career, and takes care not to alienate either side.
4. Mark doesn't make his politics known, as far as I've heard and seen.

Anyway - I'd love to see Mark Messier profiled in CA. I doubt it'll happen though.

[MrBirdman]

13 hours ago, riderpride said:

It all depends on your news feed 😆 

Cheers!

Stories like this are why I don’t have a news feed. Call me old fashioned I just read one or two papers. 

[Cigar Surgeon]

5 hours ago, MrBirdman said:

Stories like this are why I don’t have a news feed. Call me old fashioned I just read one or two papers. 

I think if you're a Canadian the context and subtext is pretty widely understood with this one. 

It would make complete sense to me if you're not Canadian that most of the issue, if not the entire issue would be unknown. 

[Puros Y Vino]

3 hours ago, ChanceSchmerr said:

Me as well. The guy's silence on....everything!...happening in his native land is a damning indictment.

I've always been a Mark Messier guy, through and through. It's even why I've been a NY Rangers fan for over 30 years, despite being a proud and unapologetic Canadian.   More to the point - Mark's in the same category as Wayne - Canadian player who then went south to make his fortune. The differences are:

1. Mark actually won a ring in the US (1994 forever!)
2. Mark actually went to his Order of Canada ceremony to receive the honor
3. Mark pays equal respect to his Oilers career and his NY Rangers career, and takes care not to alienate either side.
4. Mark doesn't make his politics known, as far as I've heard and seen.

Anyway - I'd love to see Mark Messier profiled in CA. I doubt it'll happen though.
 

I hear ya Chris. I respect what Gretzky accomplished, which is why his current stance is so disappointing. But, I too prefer Messier. He's more like Gordie Howe , but not as much career points OFC. You put your life in your hands if you wanted to square dance on the ice with Messier. After he buried you on the ice, he'd bury a few pucks into the net too once his penalty was over.   Despite all the Cup wins with the Oilers, that Rangers one was the capper for his career. That dude lead that team every night. Was happy to see him accomplish that.

[Ken Gargett]

i have no idea (or interest) in gretsky's current stances or whatever but i did see him play when i was living in DC.

kings were playing the capitals and i wanted to see Gretsky. was ambivalent about ice hockey (played proper hockey for many years). my sister lived in Edmonton for a while and often talked about him and i had a friend from Canada who insisted that just as people knew where they were when JFK was shot, people around the world knew where they were when gretsky signed with the kings - i did point out that a great many people around the world had no idea who he was let alone where they were but he was having none of it.

turned out to be a fabulous evening. kings went 3-0 up from memory. with not much time to go, at least half the crowd left. caps came back and levelled at the very end. then umpteen periods of extra time and i think it still ended in a draw.  great fun.

but i was there to see gretsky and what all the fuss was about. he got one or two of the goals but i cannot claim to understand the subtleties of the game or even skating, but he seemed to glide where others worked hard. it was effortless for him. i have no idea if that makes sense but that was what it seemed to me. even from just that one night, you could see he was a bit special. 

[Chibearsv]

9 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

but i was there to see gretsky and what all the fuss was about. he got one or two of the goals but i cannot claim to understand the subtleties of the game or even skating, but he seemed to glide where others worked hard. it was effortless for him. i have no idea if that makes sense but that was what it seemed to me. even from just that one night, you could see he was a bit special. 

I had a similar experience watching him play the Blackhawks. He was smooth and seemed to pass the puck with perfection. In my small sampling, he looked like the best passer I’d ever seen.