The passion is in his voice, the memories still glowing. To listen to him talk about his Game 7 performance in the 1993 Campbell Conference final is something akin to an artist reflecting on his masterpiece, brush stroke by brush stroke.
It ended one of the best series in hockey history and represented the apex of the Gretzky era in Los Angeles that lifted California hockey into another stratosphere.
In an interview with The Times, Gretzky looks back on it a quarter of a century later.
It was a disjointed run-up to the playoffs for Gretzky.