One More Time Around For The "Messiah": Reports out of New York say Rangers general manager Glen Sather has decided to extend center Mark Messier's stay on Broadway one more season. Hampered by injuries last year, Mess only managed to appear in 41 games, and was hardly a factor in what proved to be a miserable season for the Rangers.
And, in all reality, Messier really hasn't been a force in the NHL since the 1997 Eastern Conference Finals when the Rangers played the Flyers. That was the only season Messier and Wayne Gretzky played together in New York -- a collaboration that all fans should feel cheated about in that it didn't continue beyond that one year.
But in that playoff series with Philly, Messier was simply manhandled by then-Flyer center, now Ranger teammate, Eric Lindros. The matchup between the two almost seemed unfair, with Lindros leaving Messier battered like a ragdoll in a rainstorm. The Flyers won the series 4-1, and Messier looked finished as a front line center.
That offseason, Rangers GM Neil Smith made a huge mistake nonetheless, and let Messier escape to the Vancouver Canucks for a massive payday -- this, even though Messier would have stayed in New York for less. The following season, Gretzky began to be physically dominated like he never had before -- and the absence of Messier was the biggest reason why. Even after returning to the Rangers after three lackluster seasons in the Pacific Northwest, things have never been the same, as both Smith and Sather struggled to get teams brimming with overpaid All-Stars to mesh into something cohesive.
When you get to the point where Messier is in his career, it isn't long before you start to hear calls for retirement from sports writers who never spent a moment of their lives upright on a pair of skates with a stick in their hands. We begin to hear calls for protecting the "legacy" of one's career, and not wanting to sully the "memory" of their greatness with a few sub-par seasons during the time when there are fewer days ahead than behind.
Well, screw that. If Messier wants to play, I hope he does until Rangers management has to pry the skates off his cold, dead feet. And if that means some punk in the Rangers farm system needs to cool his heels, or more likely, work that much harder to break into the NHL, then fine by me too. Messier is simply one of the greatest ever to play the game, and every day he's with us, the league is better off. Welcome back Mark, even if it is for only one more year.
