Wayne Gretzky's wife Janet shares 38-year-old throwback clip of husband's 1987 Canada Cup-winning interview

On Friday, legendary former hockey player Wayne Gretzky’s wife Janet posted a throwback video on Instagram featuring a special interview her husband gave 38 years ago. She shared an excerpt from Gretzky’s interview after winning the 1987 Canada Cup against the USSR.

(Credit: IG/@janetgretzky)

The original clip was posted by user @stustuff18.

“Wayne Gretzky Interviewed after winning the 1987 Canada Cup vs USSR,” the caption read.

A visibly exhausted yet exhilarated Gretzky tried to find words to express his emotions.

“Just the Canadians since ‘72 have been winning on guts and pride and desire,” Gretzky said. “We don't get a whole lot of time to get a system down. We've won this tournament on hard work and pride...We had a lot of injuries but nobody complained. We had a great time throughout the whole tournament and just a special win.”

Decades later, Gretzky said the 1987 tournament victory was among the most exciting hockey of his career. In a 2012 interview, he also opened up about playing on the same line with fellow Canadian legend Mario Lemieux, a tactical decision which, according to experts, played a big part in Canada’s triumph

"The reality was, we thought the game the exact same way," Gretzky said, via ESPN. "The first couple of games we played together, we found ourselves standing beside each other in open areas in the offensive zone; that’s where we both naturally would go. But when you’re playing against great competition, that’s not the thing you want to do, have two guys in the same spot."

Wayne Gretzky recalls his earthshaking move away from the Edmonton Oilers

In 1988, Gretzky and the Oilers won their fourth straight Stanley Cup championship. Rumors swirled that he would be traded to the LA Kings. In 2013, Gretzky recalled his thoughts and emotions at the time in an interview with The Hockey News.

“It was an extremely difficult six weeks leading up to the actual trade," Gretzky said. "When it got to a point I thought it could happen, I became sort of quiet about it. I really didn’t talk to a lot of people about it. I didn’t want it to become a big circus outside of what I knew was going to transpire.

"It was sort of like a hurricane: it comes through and you didn’t see it coming. All of a sudden it just blazed through and it was done.”

The hockey community was thunderstruck when the news about the trade emerged.