If you want to win today, you have to teach players how to be tough and disciplined and fierce. You have to install a system that starts with defense. You have to deal with players who are bigger and stronger and faster than the ones you played with. You have to be an emotional leader and motivator.

That isn’t Gretzky, the greatest natural genius the game has ever seen. To have him direct the players in today’s game is like hiring Isaac Stern to conduct a fourth-grade kazoo band. No matter what he does, it’s still a kazoo band.

Today’s NHL is increasingly a game of size and strength. Gretzky wasn’t tiny, but he played a small man’s game that didn’t include fierce body checks, and when they gave strength tests to the team, he usually finished last — or next-to-last if the clubhouse boy took them for fun.

It worked — for Gretzky. You couldn’t hit him because he knew what you were going to do before you did, and he scored his points and earned his nickname by being the most instinctive genius anyone’s ever seen.

He can’t teach that. No one can.

The ability to see the game as if its being played in slow motion and to know where the holes and passing lanes are going to be, to know where others are going to pass and skate, is similar to a point guard’s ability to see the entire floor and everyone on it in basketball or a running back’s ability to see holes and lanes on a football field.

Bill Parcells, one of the best football coaches the NFL has seen, once believed you could teach any skill related to the game. He taught butter-fingered receivers how to hang on to the ball, tackles how to block, linebackers how to pass rush, cornerbacks how to cover. But he could never teach a running back how to see a hole and know when to cut. And he could never find a running back with great instincts who could explain how he did what he did.

It’s like that with point guards or great hockey scorers. Gretzky can show you what he did, but he can’t teach you how to do it any more than Magic Johnson could teach a basketball player how to make instinctive passes.

I admire the man for taking chances and trying new things and believing in himself. And because he’s Gretzky, he has every right to give it a try behind the bench.

But it was as a player that he earned his nickname. As a coach, all he can do is lose it.

MORE FROM PACIFIC (ANA, DAL, LA, PHX, SJ)

Opinion: As Kopitar's stock rises, so do Kings

Opinion: As Kopitar's stock rises, so do Kings Sharks place Blake on injured list Sale of Coyotes to NHL closes Opinion: Coyotes playing like a team on a mission Opinion: Credit Gretzky for making great move Vote: Will Gretzky coach again in the NHL? Opinion: Say farewell to Phoenix as a NHL market Opinion: Heatley deal could be a steal for Sharks Special feature: Modano best U.S.-born NHL player? Vote: Who will win division?   Add Pacific (Ana, Dal, LA, Phx, SJ) headlines to your news reader: