March 23, 1994: Wayne Gretzky Becomes the NHL's All-Time Goals Leader

March 23, 1994: Wayne Gretzky of the Los Angeles Kings scores the 802nd goal of his NHL career, surpassing the record of 801 by Gordie Howe.

The milestone occurred at 14:47 of the 2nd period, on a power play. The goaltender who gave up the goal was Kirk McLean of the Vancouver Canucks. Nevertheless, the Canucks won the game, 6-3 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

Gretzky set the single-season record in 1982, with 92 goals. He also had seasons of 87, 73 and 71. Howe never reached 50 goals in a season, topping out at 49 in 1953.

He would finish his career with 894 goals. What's more, he had 1,963 career assists, for a total of 2,857 points. To put that in perspective: Through the end of the 2020-21 season, Gretzky had more assists in his career than any other player has had points. (Jaromir Jágr had 766 goals and 1,155 assists, for 1,921 points.)

Counting playing in the World Hockey Association, Gretzky never caught Howe, scoring 940 to Howe's 975. But that's in the regular season. Counting both leagues, and their respective Playoffs (not now, Jim Mora Sr.), Gretzky had 1,072 goals, Howe 1,071.

It's also worth remembering that Gretzky played 82-game seasons with 4 rounds of Playoffs, while for most of Howe's career, it was 70 games and 2 rounds. "The Great One" was not the greatest player in hockey history: "Mr. Hockey" was.

In a 2016 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, Zach Sherwin played Gretzky, against competitive skateboarder Tony Hawk, played by "Nice" Peter Shukoff.

UPDATE: In 2025, Alexander Ovechkin surpassed Gretzky, finishing the season with 897 goals.

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March 23, 1994 was a Wednesday. This was also the day that Luis Donaldo Colosio, running for President of Mexico, was assassinated. And it was also the day of the Green Ramp Disaster at Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina. I have separate entries for those events.

There were 5 other games in the NHL that night:

* The New York Rangers, who turned out to be Gretzky's last team, beat his 1st NHL team, the Edmonton Oilers, 5-3 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs and the Florida Panthers played to a tie, 1-1 at the Miami Arena.

* The Ottawa Senators beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-4 at the Ottawa Civic Centre (now the TD Place Arena).

* The St. Louis Blues, for whom Gretzky played 18 games in 1996, beat the Buffalo Sabres, 3-2 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* And the Winnipeg Jets beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-1 at the Winnipeg Arena.

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 6 games in the NBA:

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 99-87 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Charlotte Hornets, 100-92 at The Omni in Atlanta. Kevin Willis scored 32 points and grabbed 16 rebounds. Despite their proximity, Atlanta and Charlotte have never become an NBA rivalry.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Dallas Mavericks, 112-109 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas. Doug Smith led all scorers on the night with 36 points.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 111-107 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 78-77 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

* And the Orlando Magic beat the Utah Jazz, 98-93 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.