12 years ago today was one of the best days of my young life. The day the greatest of the greats joined hte Broadway Blues. I can still remember earlier that spring/summer when Gretzky was a guest on during intermission of a Western Conference playoff game and he said he wanted to finish his career with Mess.
I screamed and ran and told my dad that Wayne Gretzky wanted to be a New York Ranger. A short time later it happened and a short time after that i had my first Rangers Jersey.
I loved Gretzky for his entire tenure and that one season with Mess was amazing. But this anniversary, which was brought to me by an SI slide-show, has triggered my mind to compare it to today. Well sort of. More along the lines of the next season.
When Mess left following the 97 playoffs the team was left with a core of Richter, Gravey and Leetchie from 94 and Gretz. You would think that losing Mess may not be that big a deal but losing Mess set the Franchise back so far that only Jagr could bring it back. But see the problem with that 97-98 team, besides injuries and bad players, was the lack of a real captain. Mess had left and Brian Leetch, his closest friend besides Gretz, was asked to be captain or just assumed the captaincy. I have always thought that Leetch as the captain was a mistake. Leetch was the heart and soul of hte team as a soft spoken game changing defenseman. As if playing 30 minutes a night wasnt bad enough now Leetch has to replace Mess, the greatest captain in all of sports and the most important player in franchise history. How could they do that? The logical successor to Mess was not Leetch, not even Gretz but Number 9 Adam Graves.
Graves has said that besides his father Mess is the person he looks up to the most. It would have probably been harder for Graves but he would have been the better choice. He was great with the media and learned his leadership from the school of Messier in Edmonton and then of course with the Blueshirts. I will forevor think that Graves should have been captain and for all i know he was asked and turned it down basically forcing Leetch to be it. I don’t know, maybe no one ever will know.
But this is what brings me to today.
Jagr leaving is tough. He meant more to this team in certain ways that Mess did. Jagr was the one who the Rangers relied on the most to score and produce for hte team while Mess was just everything in small doses. But Jagr leaving, which i am still not completely over, leaves the team in the hands of Chris Drury and Scotty Gomez. Drury who was a co captain in Buffalo and 1st alternate Assistant Captain is the obvious front runner to succeed 68 while Gomez, at least to me, has captain written all over him. The team is theirs now and is in a different type of situation. Jagr, though a great player, was not nearly the Captain or locker room presence that Mess was. Remember, Mess won 3 years before and was still the King. Jagr resurrected hte team but the writing was on the wall when Dru and Scotty came aboard.
Sather basically said, we are preparing for the Post Jagr Era. He even said that i think. Neil Smith wasn’t prepared for the Post Messier Era. And that is the biggest difference.
If this all seems like ramblings to you and it sure felt that way by the end please bear with me. This was just something i was thinking about on my drive home and connected the two only minutes before i started typing.
