NHL GOAT Wayne Gretzky’s Absurd Pre-Game Ritual Will Surely Take You by Surprise

Fans, experts, and even other players consider Wayne Gretzky the greatest ice hockey player in history. The stats are certainly in Gretzky’s favor. The Canadian has scored more goals and has more points and assists than any other player. In fact, Gretzky has more assists than total points scored by any other player.

He is also the only player to score over 200 points in a single season, and Wayne has done it four times. By the time he retired, Gretzky had 61 records to his name. However, Gretzky didn’t always follow a strict diet. In fact, the foods he had before a game would surprise anyone with even the slightest idea about the kind of diets most athletes follow.

Wayne Gretzky reveals what he had before playing

Gretzky once sat down with Graham Bensinger for an interview. During the interview, Graham asked Gretzky about what he ate before a game. Graham said, “So you would sometimes have four hotdogs before a game with onions and mustard or pie or Diet Coke.” He then asked how Wayne got away with eating junk food before a game. However, Gretzky seemed unphased.

The NHL legend calmly answered Bensinger. “In those days, we didn’t have power bars. And we didn’t have Gatorade or Powerade or energy drinks,” said Gretzky. However, the ice hockey legend had a trick up his sleeve. “I drank Diet Coke. I found that to be the same sort of stimulation as an energy drink.”, said Wayne.

Many might find it absurd when an elite athlete like Gretzky talks about drinking diet coke before a game. However, all energy drinks have some amount of glucose or its substitute to provide an energy boost, and for Gretzky, diet coke did the same thing. The surprising nature of the NHL legend’s diet didn’t stop at diet coke.

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“We had chocolate bars, we didn’t have power bars. So if I had a Snickers or any kind of a chocolate bar found that gave me energy,” said the all-time leading goal scorer of the NHL.

However, the effects of sacking junk food before a game had varying results for Wayne. While the junk food gave him energy, “sometimes it lasted throughout the game, and then other times I’d be hungry after the first period.”

The legendary player’s legendary stamina

Wayne Gretzky possessed insane stamina. Like the special nature of his pre-game eating ritual, Wayne had more stamina than nearly anyone on the field. What he didn’t have in strength and speed, Wayne more than made up for in stamina. Peter Gzowski wrote in his book ‘The Game of Our Lives’ how an exercise physiologist was shocked by Wayne’s capacity to recover.

Gretzky scored so high the physiologist thought the machine had malfunctioned.

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What do you feel about Gretzky’s absurd eating habit?