It was a 45-minute ceremony at Skyreach Centre. Wayne’s parents were there with his wife and his children. [Former teammates] Mark Messier and Jari Kurri were there. Wayne drove out onto center ice in a big black pickup truck amid a cloud of dry-ice smoke. I spoke first. Then Wayne spoke. He didn’t cry, but a lot of people were crying. Messier was crying. We showed highlights on the Jumbotron. Then we raised a banner up to the rafters–orange and blue with his name, No. 99 and the Oilers logo–and retired his number.
We had Joey come out and present him with a smaller version of the banner. Wayne said, “We used to kid that Joey would still be here when we were gone. We were right.” And then Joey unrolled the banner upside down. It read “66” instead of 99. Wayne said later he had a lump in his throat. He just calmly turned it around like it was nothing. Everybody in the building knew what had happened. The crowd went crazy for Joey, and for the classy way Wayne handled the situation. Wayne was a great hockey player, but he’s a better person.
