Hockey

Your life becomes like the sand in an hourglass. You have this sense that your time is dwindling. Only you don't know how much sand is left.

Everything has been leading up to this. Minneapolis, Madison, Chicago and Waterloo have all led me to South Bend. And it’s time to play hockey.

Our sport — our arenas and our games — is a safe haven for all those who love it.

I’ve been thinking a lot, in the past two weeks since the trade, about why I’ll miss Vancouver so much.

I saw the blood on the ice, but I didn’t know the right side of my face was caved in.

I will never forget the night I saw Phil Kessel turn into Hulk Hogan. I was right on the bench to witness the whole thing.

My career was over. My life was going a million miles an hour. I was drinking to mask my pain, I didn’t want to feel any feelings at all.

Wayne Gretzky, Pavel Bure, Chris Chelios and Martin Brodeur. One by one they came up to my dad and asked him for autographs.

Hockey, in one way or another, always had my back growing up.

I can still recall the exact moment that my brain started lying to me.

The day in 2009 when I was given the Wild captaincy was one of the proudest of my life.

Hey, guys. I went to the NHL All-Star Game in Los Angeles and asked the players some spicy questions. I also found my friend the bear after a lot of searching.

I’m tortured by something that happened between us a long, long time ago that was never cleared up.

We met up with Bryz at a Mediterranean restaurant (his choice) for a no-nonsense Q&A session.

No matter how many goals you let in, the feeling of making just one save makes it all worth it. That’s how you know you’re on the right path.

You might not believe me, but Torts is a pretty down to earth guy.

If we don’t win the gold medal, it’s a failure. End of story.

It took a lot of time after that game for me to decide whether or not I wanted to continue playing.

As a general rule of thumb in hockey, you never want the GM to pop his head into the locker room after practice and ask if he can see you for a second.

All I was thinking about was getting back on the ice at Madison Square Garden. You gotta die somewhere, right?

That weekend in Nashville was simply amazing. It felt like the entire building was on my side.

I was going to have to play the biggest game of my life with a sunburn.

In this installment of When I Knew, Wayne Gretzky remembers the moment when he knew he was more than just another hockey player.

This is not your typical Wayne Gretzky interview. This is Life Out Loud. Listen as The Great One narrates the story of his life.