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 really had the time to take my time and see how I felt,
I never thought about any individual records. Coming back to break any records, especially that record, wasn't all that appealing to me.
But I felt that I was fairly confident in what it took to win a Stanley Cup coming off five Cups in seven years, ... And I was lucky to be a part of a team that was willing to sacrifice themselves for the benefit of the team.
Bravery is not the absence of fear, but the action in the face of fear.
The only pressure I'm under is the pressure I've put on myself.
You always really have to remain consistent in your beliefs and philosophy.
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.
I think the thing you always got to keep in mind, you know, hockey is a game of one-on-one battles.
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 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.
My jersey hanging from the ceiling is going to be a symbol of the hard work of the people I played with.
When Wayne was traded, I became captain. For me it really wasn't anything - I didn't do anything or I didn't feel I had to do anything different than what I had been doing all along.
There was a time there in the mid '80s to the '90s there that we played six finals, three Canada Cups, we were playing hockey almost 10 months a year for a long time there.