Walter confirmed that he had originated the quote and clarified the exact wording. "The quote is 'Go to where the puck is going, not where it has been,' " Walter says. And does the truly great Gretzky consider this a good piece of advice to give to a professional hockey player -- or to a hard-skating new-economy businessperson?

"Mama mia, no!" Walter says. "That advice is strictly for little kids. It's just simple basics, like the ABCs. You have to know the alphabet before you can write. And naturally, going to where the puck is going is something that pros take for granted -- or they wouldn't be playing professionally. Besides, I'd never give advice to a pro. I've never played professionally in my life."

If professional experience makes a difference, the CDU decided that it would be wise to turn to someone who knows the pro game cold: Herb Brooks, who produced his own "miracle on ice," coaching the U.S. hockey team to victory over its own unassailable beast -- the "unbeatable" Soviet Union hockey team -- during the 1980 Olympics. Brooks now leads not whales but penguins onto the ice: The CDU caught up with him in Pittsburgh, at the Penguins's practice arena. Would Brooks ever advise his charges to skate to where the puck is going, not to where it has been?

"You'd have to be a real idiot to skate to where the puck used to be," Brooks says. "On the other hand, if everyone skated to where the puck is going, you'd have one big train wreck. Sometimes your job on the ice is to take the pressure off of the guy who's headed for the puck by drawing players away. And sometimes you want to skate to where the puck is, not to where it's going. When you shoot the puck into the zone, it's up for grabs -- and you have to chase it."

So if the advice should never be offered to a pro, and if, in fact, there are times when the best pros don't even follow this advice, then the CDU had to know: Had the Great One ever been observed not following what is generally believed to be his own advice?

"I certainly saw him chase a puck more than once," says Rod Phillips, who, for the past 27 years, has been the voice of the Edmonton Oilers, the franchise with which Gretzky spent the first 9 seasons of his storied hockey career. Paul Fichtenbaum, hockey editor for "Sports Illustrated," corroborated that claim. "I've even seen him pressure a puck carrier, which would mean skating to where the puck is, not to where it's going," he says. Wayne Gretzky, spotted skating to where the puck is, not to where it's going!

But the CDU's whale tale wouldn't be complete without a visit to Wayne Gretzky's Restaurant, appropriately located at 99 Blue Jays Way, in Toronto. The CDU asked chef Richard Prentice, Do his waiters, busboys, and chefs skate to where the puck is going? "I can't say we do much skating around here," Prentice says. "And we don't serve skate either. Not much demand for it, I don't think. And while we do have a Powerplay pizza and a Hat Trick sandwich, we decided against offering a 'puck burger.' Connotes the wrong kind of image, if you know what I mean. Our burger is called the Great One, and the only skating it does is straight to the table." Presumably, to where the diners are, not to where they're going.

Sidebar: Get the Puck out of Here!

"Hockey great Wayne Gretzky was once asked the secret of his success. 'I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been,' he said."

-- Ron Hanser, PR consultant, West Des Moines, Iowa, in "Jack O'Dwyer's Newsletter," July 21, 1999

"Asked about the basis for his phenomenal success, hockey great Wayne Gretsky [sic] once responded, 'I don't skate to where the puck is. I skate to where the puck is going to be.' Bankers can learn a lot from that statement."

-- Mark Henry Sebell, president and founder of Creative Realities Inc., in "U.S. Banker," October 1997

"'Skate to where the puck is going, not to where it's been' (Wayne Gretzky). For me, this is a call to prepare students for their future, not for our past."

-- Daniel E. Kinnamam, education consultant and codirector of the Atlanta-based Technology Learning Professional Development Institute, in "Technology & Learning," January 1996

"There is a vast space yet to be pioneered. You skate where the puck is going."

-- Douglas L. Wolford, general manager of Network Solutions, in "Business Week," March 13, 2000

"We believe in the wisdom once expressed by the hockey star Wayne Gretzky, who explained his success by saying, 'I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.'"

-- Norman R. Augustine, chairman and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corp., in the "Harvard Business Review," May-June 1997

Research assistance for this sidebar provided by Zoë Barton.