By Kevin Glew

When Ken Hammond was preparing for his first NHL game on April 2, 1985 against the Edmonton Oilers, his Los Angeles Kings teammates Mark Hardy and Jay Wells offered him advice on how to neutralize Wayne Gretzky.

“They just said, ‘Gretzky is going to try to exploit you. He does this great stop-up when he gets across the blueline, where he’ll move away from the defenseman. Just try to close your gap on him,’ ” Hammond recalled. “Then during the game, Gretzky came across the blueline and I tried to jump up on him and I knocked him over. As I was marveling at how wonderful I was, Dave Semenko came over and just flattened me. He stood over me and said, ‘We don’t do that here kid.’

http://www.thehockeynews.com/article...daily_20101122