EDISON, N.J. - The Great One had the highest regard for Al Arbour, whom he considered a great guy.
"Oh my gosh. I don't know if hockey has ever had a classier man involved with the game. He was so well-respected," Wayne Gretzky said of the late Islanders coach after following Dustin Johnson, his daughter's fiancee, at The Barclays on Sunday.
"My dad always said, one thing in life you can't do is buy respect," said Gretzky, who was stunned to hear about Arbour's death in Florida on Friday. "You have to earn respect. Al was the kind of person who everybody really liked and gravitated to but really respected.