Messier retires

[Booche]

Gonna miss ya Moose. I hated you early on in your career, but you made ammends by being a leader and a consummate hockey player. You certainly werent my favorite player to ever play the game, but you were one of the best. When you led the Rangers to their first Stanley Cup in 54 years, I was very proud to have witnessed the run ya'll made. It truly was one of the greatest sporting stories I ever cheered for.

Semi-final round, your boys are down 3 games to 2 to the Devil's and have to face them at home. What do you do? Guarantee a victory.

Now, I cant lie and say I didnt bitch about that one "MESS! What are you doing? That is pure fodder for Scott Stevens et al!!!" When the Devils took a 2 nothing lead in the game, I (surely as well as every Ranger fan) thought it was over. What do you do?

Carry the team on your back, score a hat trick and play one of the greatest hockey games I have ever seen by any player. Ever. You OWNED the entire nation of fans watching. The glares, the bitching and cursing, the hits........you played with more heart than just about any performance I have ever seen.

Its a sad day Mess. I was hoping you would try and get those 12 games under your belt and hold the record for Most Games Played, but that isnt your style. What would you have done after you had the record? You were only 50 assists away from having the 2nd most assists ever, but you didnt need that stat either.

I only hope we get to see another player cut in your mold some day.

[dave-O]

Guaranteeing the victory and going out and scoring a hat trick is the stuff that makes legends. And Mess was already on his way before that.

[Hal Johnson]

I watched that series the other day on one of those specialty sports channels. It was incredible! Man, could he make scoring from the off wing look easy. What a guy. Ill miss ya too Mess.