But I've made the right decision.'' Smiling through his tears, the greatest player ever made it easy for everyone to say goodbye - skating around the arena slowly enough for plenty of souvenir photos to be taken. Better still, he touched youngsters' hands every time he noticed them extended from the crowd. He even played to the adoring fans, donning a blue Yankees hat, then a red Rangers beret.
Nobody Does It Better'' blared throughout.
On the final shift of his 21-year pro career, with all the fans at Madison Square Garden on their feet cheering as if a Stanley Cup title was imminent, Gretzky did nothing special. During a Rangers timeout with 40.4 seconds to go in the third period, his wife, Janet, started to cry as the fans began the long, final salute to The Great One. Moments after the timeout, he nearly had a breakaway, but Pittsburgh goalie Tom Barrasso, who had a sensational game, beat Gretzky to the puck. Appropriately, as if his career just wasn't supposed to end now, the game went into overtime. Maybe it's only fitting that the best young player in the game scored the winning goal,'' Gretzky said.