re: I'm considering getting into hockey, help me pick a team

OK, this is gonna get ugly.

Mario's best season, he scored 85 G and 114 A, just shy of 200 points. He did score 160+ points in 4 different seasons and had 90+ assists three times. He scored 70+ goals twice. Pretty f'n impressive. Mario was a great player. One of the very best ever.

And Gretzky blows him the hell away. Gretazky did reach that 200 point plateau that Mario never hit, and he did it four times. To compare to that 160+ point level, Gretzky did that NINE times. Heck, in 1985-86, he had 161 assists. He had 90+ assists three times... plus another ten times. In fact, he had at least 100 assists in ELEVEN CONSECUTIVE seasons. He also cleared 70 goals four times.

Gretzky rewrote the record book. He has more career assists than anyone else has points. Now, had Mario stayed healthy, he might have prevented that awesome record, but maybe not. He needed to score 240 points in those three seasons he missed to have as many points as Gretzky had assists. Heck, they rewrote the rulebook to stop Gretzky (we still see it today with matching minors on a power play does not reduce play to 4-on-3, an Oiler specialty or in the creation of the "office" behind the net by shrinking the nets to give more room back there)

Gretzky was hockey god.