Gonna be lots of tears at the Garden tonight.

Discuss.

1/12/2006 6:05:59 PM

was my favorite player when i played hockey back in my early teens.

he was great, and im glad he ended as a ranger

1/12/2006 6:08:18 PM

I'm glad he ended as a Ranger.

I'm still holding a mild grudge about the whole Cauncks thing though.

1/12/2006 6:15:43 PM

Man, wish I could be there for that. He was always my favorite player... Great career.

1/12/2006 6:25:16 PM

I just got back and I'm gonna watch it now and then catch the 2nd and 3rd periods of the actual game..

sure it was emotional for Mess..

oh and my bitch ass will probably choke up a bit..

[Edited on January 12, 2006 at 9:04 PM. Reason : f]

1/12/2006 9:03:05 PM

bry rye where are you living now and with who?

1/12/2006 9:28:45 PM

I'm out in Cary (near Preston Golf Course) but I'm living by myself.

Just wanted ONE year to live by myself since next year I'll have roommates again to make it cheaper for law school..

1/12/2006 9:30:55 PM

props to messier, but i still love mario lemieux

[Edited on January 12, 2006 at 9:58 PM. Reason : .]

1/12/2006 9:58:37 PM

Quote :

"Grand exit begins with fitting entrance They had waited for him on 33rd Street one last time, near the entrance to the Garden used by team buses and cars the players drive themselves, the beginning of the long steep driveway that can take a car almost onto the Garden ice. And when Mark Messier showed up at a little before 5 o'clock, he did not disappoint anybody. He was out of the car fast, hearing the first cheers of the night as he started signing autographs. This was really the beginning of it for Messier, this night when he would have his number retired and hold the Stanley Cup above his head at the Garden one last time and make the Garden into the 14th of June in 1994 one more time. Now Messier had gotten away from the crowd on the sidewalk and was just inside the Garden, his brother next to him, still working out when to send the cars for the rest of his family. When the plan was made finally, Messier turned around suddenly, looked back at the street, and smiled. "I came in this way every night," he said. "About this same time of day?" he was asked. "Oh, earlier than this," he said. "Pick up (Brian) Leetch and get over here and get ready for the game." Messier smiled again. "This is like one more big game," he said. "It feels like every big game I ever played here." He was asked if he was ready for the night. "I'm prepared," he said. "Put it that way. I'm nervous, but I'm prepared." He nodded. "So I guess this really is like all the big games." It was Game 7 again last night, Rangers against the Vancouver Canucks, the night the Rangers won their first Stanley Cup since 1940. It was Game 6 against the Devils, the game Messier had guaranteed the Rangers would win, the one in which he scored three of his team's four goals. It was double-overtime against the Devils and those signs we would see from Red Sox fans 10 years later, the ones that read: "Now I Can Die In Peace." It was all that. They will celebrate that Stanley Cup again at the Garden someday, and maybe a lot of the players on the ice with Messier will be there again. It will just not be like last night, when Rangers fans got to officially thank Capt. Messier for everything. He was their Willis Reed once. He was Namath against the Colts. For New York Rangers hockey fans, the spring of 1994 was the Mets in 1969. Messier did not do it alone. That is never the way it works in sports. He had Brian Leetch and Mike Richter and Adam Graves and Stephane Matteau to end Game 7 against the Devils. In memory, it just seems that it was Messier against the world sometimes. Last night was about all that, too. In the end in sports, all we have are moments. Downstairs at 5 o'clock, Mark Messier said, "I can always say I saw this place at its best and this city at its best." Hockey is not baseball in New York City and never will be. The '94 Rangers are not the old Knicks. Or Namath's Jets. Or the Giants of the '50s or Parcells' Giants. But there was never a better sports night than that night when the Rangers won the Stanley Cup, when Messier delivered on the promise of the Cup that he had made when he got here from Edmonton. They honored that at the Garden as they honored Messier, and his teammates, and one of the most amazing careers in the history of team sports. "Mark," Adam Graves said on the ice, "it was an honor to skate alongside you." The Garden roared again. But then the place has been making some noise lately. Tom Renney's Rangers have been a wonderful surprise. Larry Brown's Knicks have won five in a row and gotten the place jumping with some overtime wins. The place has not been happier than it was last night when it had Messier back. And there was some magic at work here. Messier, No.11, took the ice at 11 minutes after 7 exactly. An hour later, right before his huge white jersey went to the top of the place, at 11 minutes after 8, he really did have the Cup above his head, and the Garden went mad at the sight of that. Dana Reeve, the widow of Messier's late friend Christopher Reeve, fighting lung cancer herself, had by then sung a stirring version of the song "Now and Forever." Richter had gotten some laughs saying the night was sponsored by Kleenex, a reference to Messier being as much of a legendary weeper as a champion hockey player. Graves had also said this: "He made us believe that the Stanley Cup was our destiny." Then another wave of cheers and chants rolled out of where the real blue seats used to be, in all those seasons when people thought the Rangers never would win again, all the seasons before Mark Messier came to town from Edmonton. Before the game, Jaromir Jagr, part of this wonderful Rangers revival, had talked about finally getting to see a lot of those playoff games from 1994 on the MSG Network, in the days and nights leading up to Messier's night. Jagr was asked if he could see the iron will from Messier that everybody talked about on the Garden ice last night. Jagr shook his head. "I saw the talent," he said. They celebrated that talent last night. One more time, Ranger fans celebrated Capt. Messier and June of '94. It was a line in the song Dana Reeve sang so beautifully, and it was about Messier and the people who cheered him. They all had a moment once. "

Awesome Lupica article.

[Edited on January 13, 2006 at 8:59 AM. Reason : f]

1/13/2006 8:56:17 AM

Tip of the hat to Mess.

1/13/2006 10:18:52 AM

Does anyone know if there is a video of the full ceremony anywhere on the net?

1/13/2006 10:57:31 AM

^I believe they posted it on NHL.com. If they took it off by the time you get there, try:
http://mfile.akamai.com/16532/wmv/nhl.download.akamai.com/16532/wm.nhl.na-central/comp/messier/messier_celebration_1_12_06_300.asx

Not sure if it's the whole thing or just highlights, though.

[Edited on January 13, 2006 at 2:24 PM. Reason : .]

1/13/2006 2:24:26 PM

It's 26 minutes, so I'm guessing it's the whole thing. Thanks!

1/13/2006 3:31:56 PM

Too bad 99% of America doesnt give a rats ass about hockey.

1/13/2006 3:32:37 PM

Haha not even close. The ceremony on ice was exactly 1 hour. He stepped on the ice at 7:11 and the banner was raised at 8:11..

[Edited on January 13, 2006 at 3:33 PM. Reason : fuck it..]

1/13/2006 3:32:51 PM

Im not trolling, hardly anyone on here cares about hockey, just like America, so I am not trolling when I say that nobody cares about hockey. Its ok you are from the north and like an overrated sport that pays its players more than they are worth. Thats why the NHL went away for a year and nobody missed it. Now if we could only get it canceled forever would this country be a better place to live.

1/13/2006 3:35:20 PM

Haha so both teams had to sit on the bench for over an hour?

1/13/2006 3:50:41 PM

It was about an hour long ceremony, they showed it on CenterIce. I watched it for about 45 minutes, then I got bored. I guess it is different when you are actually there.

1/13/2006 4:59:32 PM

hahaha

does MacGyver know he's talking to himself?

1/13/2006 8:18:49 PM

obviously you heard him

1/13/2006 8:27:04 PM