Maple Leafs' Max Domi: Wayne Gretzky 'makes me so proud to be Canadian'

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Wayne Gretzky has been in demand to speak publicly the past weeks, but a few words to Max Domi this weekend meant the world to the Maple Leafs forward. 

Chatting with the media in Pittsburgh on Sunday afternoon after his first-period goal was part of an eventual 6-5 overtime Toronto win, Domi revealed that Gretzky had phoned him Saturday night on the eve of his 30th birthday. 

“That was probably the highlight,” Domi said of the milestone date. “He said: ‘Make sure you shoot the puck, I’ll be watching tomorrow’.” 

Having gone 27 games without a goal, back to Dec. 20, the advice was just what Domi needed. 

Gretzky has become a polarizing figure on the Canadian-U.S. political scene, he and his wife Janet being friends with Donald Trump, despite the president’s statements on possibly annexing the northern neighbour as the 51st state. Opinion polls are split between urging Gretzky to end his silence and rebuke Trump or face backlash at home, versus those who believe No. 99’s status as the greatest scorer in the game, a national team player and executive, has no bearing on who his friends are or his political beliefs. 

Domi is squarely in the pro-Gretzky camp. 

“A guy like that, the greatest player of all time, he’s why I play hockey,” said Domi. “To get a call from the best ever on my birthday (arranged through his father Tie, a Gretzky peer in the 1990s) was pretty special. To pot one, even though it was a tap-in, that one was for him. I’m super-grateful. He makes me so proud to be Canadian.” 

Lhornby@postmedia.com 

X: @sunhornby