Mark Messier
Mark Messier
Mark Douglas Messieris a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre of the National Hockey League and former special assistant to the president and general manager of the New York Rangers. He played a quarter of a century in the NHLwith the Edmonton Oilers, New York Rangers, and Vancouver Canucks. He also played professionally with the World Hockey Association's Indianapolis Racers and Cincinnati Stingers. He was the last former WHA player to be active in professional hockey, and the last active...
NationalityCanadian
ProfessionHockey Player
Date of Birth18 January 1961
CityEdmonton, Canada
CountryCanada
I was assistant in Edmonton with Wayne as captain, and Kevin Lowe was the other assistant.
If I had to compare any of the two, I'd compare the first one in Edmonton, the first one here in New York because it had been so long in New York since we had won. Obviously, being the first time to ever win the cup in Edmonton, they were fairly similar in that regard.
I never was brought into the league thinking as far as, you know, statistics, things like that. We were really brought into the league in a team concept. Everything was focused around winning.
Really the team often will take on the personality of its coach.
Well, my transition into being a captain was easy.
Obviously every one of them was special to that particular team, all the people that were involved with it.
I haven't celebrated coming in No. 2 too many times.
I've never really spent a lot of time thinking about my individual accomplishments actually.
I think the thing you always got to keep in mind, you know, hockey is a game of one-on-one battles.
I would never say one was more important or more gratifying than the next because there's a tremendous amount of work, as you know, that goes into winning a cup.
When you play long enough, everybody goes through spells and streaks and slumps of some nature. I think it's just one of the those things where you have to play yourself out of it.
Like I said, a 30-year-old hockey player, even when I came to New York when I was 30, I was on the downside of my career, pretty much the end of my career.
You always really have to remain consistent in your beliefs and philosophy.
The only pressure I'm under is the pressure I've put on myself.