About Al

Messier's connections to Howe run a long way

Following his historic eclipsing of Gordie Howe as the NHL's second all-time leading scorer in the Rangers 3-0 Garden win over the Stars, Mark Messier sat down with me to discuss the milestone moment.

Trautwig: When you had the puck on your stick [about to score an empty-net goal to surpass Gordie Howe's mark], is there a flash where you say, "This is it"?"

Messier: Well, I was in a good situation, because obviously we were short-handed, so I didn't have to worry about icing the puck if I missed the net. That allowed me the freedom to not only extend the lead, but also to pass Howe, so it was a good situation to be in.

Trautwig: It has to make you feel extra satisfied that the one that you tie Gordie Howe is a great goal. Such a hockey skilled goal. Tell me what happened.

Messier: Well, I got out there with Alex [Kovalev] and [Matthew] Barnaby was in the penalty box. The puck was turned over at the blueline, and Alex got the puck to me. He does it as good as anybody.

Gordie Howe has long been a part of Mark Messier's consciousness. (AP)

Messier: My family's been here for a while but more importantly they've been here through my whole career. They haven't missed too many games no matter where I've been and they've been a big part of my success.

Trautwig: Very few people have a moment in their life when it's absolute, pure joy.

Messier: I think from our perspective, it's our profession, it's what we do for a living, it's what we spend our whole lives trying to accomplish and get the best as we can at. And to reach certain plateaus in your career is something special. Obviously winning the Stanley Cup is what everybody dreams about, as a player. When you grow up in Canada, coming from small communities, it wasn't the Hall of Fame, it wasn't scoring goals, it wasn't doing anything other than winning the Stanley Cup and watching all the greats before us do it. So that's what we envision when we're kids playing on back ponds.

But through longevity and good fortune and a lot of good people that have surrounded me through my career, I've been able to achieve some individual statistics that I never set out to do.

Trautwig: You had a chance to talk to Gordie Howe in an exhibition game in Detroit recently, right?

Messier: Yeah, we had an exhibition game in Detroit, and it just so happened that my son was playing in the Junior B-league there, so he came to the game and sure enough, Gordie was there with his son Mark. So the four of us sat in the press box during the game and had some good conversation, talked about some old times. It was a big thrill for my son, as well as me.

My Dad was affiliated with the Detroit Red Wings team for quite a few years, and got to meet Gordie. So I got first hand stories about Gordie Howe, how tough and powerful and elegant he was, and what a great player he was. My Dad had a lot of respect for him, so obviously growing up, Gordie Howe was a big name in the hockey circles for my family.

Trautwig: What's an added bonus - and I know this has to be important to you as a team guy - comes at a time when you probably feel on home ice like this team hasn't felt in a while. To beat Detroit, get a point out of Colorado, and to shut this team (Dallas) out tonight, it feels good in that way too, no?

Messier: I said to someone the other day that it's been kind of hard to think about any individual success after what's happened here for the last six years. I think the team has been at the forefront, and all of our minds are on winning. So when you're winning and things like this happen it makes it that much more special. We had an opportunity to turn the franchise around in '91, and we won the Stanley Cup in '94 and went to the Conference Finals in '97, and we instilled some deep pride back into the Ranger uniform. And that's what we want to do again. It's a proud organization, there's a lot of proud people working here right now, and we're trying to instill that pride back into the uniform.