How do you do it, Wayne?

Welcome back to Toronto, Mr. Gretzky.

This city has been exceptionally welcoming to you, from the day that John Iaboni wrote the first major newspaper story about you in the Toronto Telegram in 1971, to the day that city council agreed to rename part of Peter Street as “Blue Jay Way”, so that the restaurant that bears your name could be assigned the appropriate street address of 99.

Of course, you’d expect nothing less from the city that’s not only the centre of the hockey world, but also the closest NHL venue to your hometown of Brantford.

Some of us in the Big Smoke just wish you didn’t have so much success against the Maple Leafs.

We were given a preview of your dominating, phenomenal and illustrious career on March 29, 1980 when the Oilers visited Maple Leaf Gardens and you trailed Marcel Dionne 132-127 in the race for the Art Ross Trophy. With only four games left to be played in Edmonton’s schedule, Dionne’s lead seemed insurmountable. Yet you managed to reel off a pair of goals plus four assists to briefly overtake Dionne by a single point. We all know what happened next – Dionne was eventually named scoring champion because of his two extra goals even though you each finished the year with 137 points. But that performance against the Leafs in that 8-5 victory provided a glimpse of what was to be your capacity to be able to domineer the Leafs at will.

As you led Edmonton to a dynasty that would eventually claim four Stanley Cups in the 80’s, you always seemed to accelerate to a higher gear whenever the Oilers visited 60 Carleton Street. Like on November 27, 1984 when you had a hat trick and two assists in a 7-1 romp over the Leafs.

Then there was the wild-west shootout on January 8, 1986 when you notched yet another hat trick and finished the night with 6 points. At least Leaf fans had some comfort in coming out on the winning end of the 11-9 goal-fest, thanks largely to Miroslav Frycer’s 4-goal outburst.

When you had back surgery in 1992, four years removed from Edmonton and now captain of the Los Angeles Kings, we thought we could breathe a sigh of relief. Even when your Kings took the Leafs to seven games in the 1993 Campbell Conference Final, the lead hockey columnist for the “Toronto Star” at the time, a guy named Bob McKenzie, suggested that - at 32 and coming off repairs - you were unable to rise to the occasion.

So when the two teams faced off at Maple Leaf Gardens for the seventh and deciding game, with the winner earning the right to play the Montreal Canadiens for the Stanley Cup, not many people would have thought that you would have the best NHL game you have ever played.

Another hat trick. A triumph for the Kings. A crushing final blow to Leafs fans who hadn’t seen the team advance to the final four in the previous 15 years, and still have not played in the NHL’s final round since winning the Cup in 1967 when you were six-years old.

Toronto fans are still lying on psychiatrists' couches, describing that wrap-around marker following a rush down the right side and behind the net in which the puck eventually deflected off Dave Ellett's skate behind Felix Potvin.

CBC is probably still just a little miffed at you, after all a Leafs-Habs Stanley Cup Final would have produced astronomical TV ratings unseen in this country.

But, Toronto always seems to bring out the best in you. And with your dad Walter frequently in the gold seats, it should come as no surprise that you always saved the best for those Leaf games.

So by the time you teamed up with Brett Hull to oust the Leafs in the first round of the 1996 playoffs as a member of the St. Louis Blues, Toronto fans had become conditioned like Pavlovian dogs to expect nothing less.

The next logical step then, would have been to try to get you to play for our team. So our general manager Cliff Fletcher, now your Senior Executive VP in Phoenix made a pitch, only to have rank pulled by Chairman of the Board Steve Stavro. On that point, maybe Toronto isn’t as welcoming to you as I thought.

63 career regular-season games against Toronto. 55 goals, 95 assists, 150 points. Your goals-per-game average versus the Leafs is highest against any other opponent over your career.

So even when the Leafs vaulted to a 3-0 lead in last night’s game, we should have known that the cushion wasn’t safe. Your tirade against the officials at the end of the first period proved to be the catalyst in the Coyotes rally and eventual victory.

I guess Toronto fans should be used to this by now.

The good news is that Phoenix won’t visit for another three years.