Messier's Farewell

Messier's Farewell

By Kevin Forrester Apr 4, 2004

Mark Messier took what may well be his final lap at Madison Square Garden following the Sabres win over the Rangers last night.
It's only fitting that he and the Great One, Wayne Gretzky took their final laps of professional hockey at Madison Square Garden.
Now, let's hope that "Moose" follows through on his retirement plans and hangs them up at the end of this season.
Lets' hope he doesn't get the Michael Jordan, Sugar Ray Leonard bug and retires more than once.
Mess was too great a player to lower himself.
He would make a great coach someday and his reputation alone would make rookies stand up, pay attention and shake in their skate boots.

Jose Theodore had what I would refer to as an "off night" last evening against the Islanders.
He proved once again that goaltending is so important and heading into the playoffs, Montreal should cross their fingers Jose doesn't run into injuries or have many "off nights".
The Habs go as Jose goes.

Not since Theoren Fleury was in his prime, has the NHL seen so many "smaller" players become "big" parts of their teams.
I refer specifically to Jarome Iginla of the Flames, Daniel Briere of the Sabres and Steve Sullivan and Scott Walker of the Predators.
And let's not forget Jordain Tootoo. He is a runaway train. When this guy sets his mind to hitting someone, you know the glass will rattle.
The new obstruction , holding and hooking rules have helped these guys excel.

Jaromir Jagr is taking the rest of this season off. He has given up. I watched the other night with much dismay as he basically figure skated for twenty minutes at MSG.
This guy is the highest paid player in the league and his work ethic is an embarrassment.
If for no other reason than the Rangers are absolutely brutal, Glen Sather should be fired for thinking Jagr would help the Rangers in the home stretch.
How many more of these decisions by Sather will it take before the owners of the Rangers realize that he is a bad GM who simply coached great teams in the '80 in Edmonton?

Biggest "pleasant" surprises of the 2003-2004 NHL regular season: Rick Nash, Mikka Kiprusoff, Martin St. Louis, Scott Walker, the Calgary Flames and Andrew Raycroft.
Biggest disappointments of the 2003-2004 NHL regular season: Jean-Sebastien Giguere and the Anaheim Might Ducks, the Columbus Blue Jackets after signing what seemed like a good core of free agents, the Minnesota Wild, Dominik Hasek, the New York Rangers (again) and what were supposed to the free agent signings of the decade by one team - Teemu Selanne and Paul Karyia of the Colorado Avalanche.

Comeback player of the year: Alexandre Daigle of the Minnesota Wild - easy choice.

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