EDMONTON — The Crown Prince of the shinny world arrived at practice wearing a white shirt, blue shorts, expensive sneakers and patience.

He walked with a slight limp, a reminder of a hard but clean check from Ron Sutter of the Philadelphia Flyers, and he was talking with one of his agents. He signed a couple of autographs, answered a few questions from clinging reporters and then disappeared into the dressing room.

When he emerged yesterday, it was to head straight over to the Edmonton Convention Centre where the Stanley Cup luncheon was held. Once again, Wayne Gretzky was the star attraction in a room filled with names of greatness from the past. In pink tie and grey suit, blonde hair styled and in place, he resembled more a college student than a professional hockey player.

While the more than 1,000 in attendance at the luncheon acknowledged the prescence of Gordie Howe, Brad Park, Anders Hedberg, they fawned over Wayne Gretzky. Howe remains as Gretzky's idol, but when Howe himself is asked about Wayne Gretzky he simply shrugs and delivers the usual string of superlatives, taken from a vast language which still seems to fall short of adequately describing Wayne Gretzky.

In only his sixth season in the National Hockey League and still in only his 24th year, the blonde-thatched Gretzky remains one without accurate description.

He stands at least a notch above every other superstar who has played in the National Hockey League, nudging aside and then obliterating virtually every scoring record available to his unbridled skills. His is a one-horse race.

So good is he there is a resentment which has built up over the years, constructed on envy and jealousy, silly and senseless.

“He is so good he could have played in any era of the game,” Howe said. “And he would be just as good.”

To watch him is to see Hemingway write, to see Sinatra sing, to watch Ali box, to hear Danny Gallivan broadcast. He is the Madonna of the hockey world, without peer, sizzling each time you suspect he has climbed as high as he can.

The Edmonton Oilers can win without Wayne Gretzky. But they will not win as much, or as often without him. He is the lift which takes them higher than others can go.

His performance on Saturday night in Oilers' 4-3 win over the Flyers, to give Edmonton a 2-1 series lead and set up tonight's critical game here, was to watch the master at work.

He scored three first-period goals which were to marvel over. One one of them, he took a pass from Mark Messier in front of the net, controlled the puck, and then flicked it past Pelle Lindbergh. He was moving at close to full speed. He did all this in the time it takes to blink.

The next day his father Walter called from Brantford. “Wayne,” he asked his son, “was the puck off the ice when you took the pass?” Wayne replied: “Yes, it was about four inches off the ice.”

The hand eye coordination of Gretzky is impossible for the mere mortals among us to grasp, even when we see it — his mind having made an uncanny pact with the functions of his body.

Walter picked up the airborne puck on his television set and was amused that the media failed to see it, didn't ask Gretzky about it after the game.

To watch him play is nothing less then a treat, because he will show you something different all the time. On Saturday night, it was Gretzky curling along the boards behind the Flyer goalline and then banking a pass off the side of the net straight into the slot to Jari Kurri.

It was circling and cutting, back and forth, round and round, with the Flyers' Doug Crossman literally stumbling in circles frantically trying to keep up to Gretzky. You swore that Crossman was disappearing into the ice, as a screw does when turned into a block of wood. He resembled a dog chasing its tail.

He is so talented, he is able to adapt without missing a step to a new linemate, in this case left winger Esa Tikkanen, who was airlifted here two weeks ago from Finland and put on a line with Gretzky and Kurri two games ago. Tikkanen has fit right in, mostly because of Gretzky's ability to pick up on the 20-year-old's style of play. “After playing with him for a couple of games, I am getting to know what he will do and I think now I'll have to pass the puck to the left side a little more,” said Gretzky.

Gretzky is not immune to the sniping which occasionally goes on when he fails to score. He was upset in Philadelphia after game one of the Stanley Cup when he was held scoreless and failed to get a shot on net. A Philadelphia newspaper lashed out at him the next day, questioning his*heart, headlining the story: The Great One comes up empty.”

Those who know Gretzky claim the opening game loss and the next day's criticism brought him out of his one-game slump.

“I am judged by my scoring stats,” Gretzky said. “But I also feel I can play defensive hockey. Glen has enough confidence in me to put me out when we are killing penalties and I feel good about that part of my game, too. When I read some of things which were said about me and about the team after the loss in Philadelphia, I had to question the person who was writing it.”

In Saturday's game, another facet of Gretzky's game was underlined. In the final seconds of the game, Messier was moved out of a crucial faceoff in Edmonton's end and Gretzky was forced to take it. He not only won the draw, he also scooped up the puck and cleared it out of Edmonton's end as the Flyers pressed to tie the game.

He was again the consumate hero, although even the term hero seems somehow inadequate.

His grace on ice carries over off it. He charms better than any professional athlete before him. And he is so patient with those who seek to interview him. It was a lesson he learned from Gordie Howe, in a roundabout way.

A few years ago after a difficult round of interviews, Gretzky was on his way to the hotel in New York when a writer from a small New Jersey paper asked for an interview.

Gretzky declined and left. A long time hockey writer had overheard the conversation and he told Gretzky: “Gordie Howe would have had time.”

Gretzky later called the New Jersey writer and spent almost an hour with him.

He has style on and off the ice, peerless in an age of endless comparisons and clones.

You do forget that to see him play is special. It's because he has made the extraordinary such an ordinary event.

So close now to a second straight Stanley Cup championship, he tingles with the excitement of it. And you find yourself anxiously awaiting the game to see what next he will do to transcend the sport itself.