Messier Vs Yzerman

[BenchBrawl]

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[Jim MacDonald]

A couple things to add gang in Yzerman's favor......going away from the offensive numbers, Yzerman is the guy who was better defensively....Messier (in the Jeffrey Klein biography on him) was known for making the "dangerous/risky" cross-ice passes throughout his career (hence the Theo Fleury goal in OT Game 6), plus in the 94 finals Game 7, the very last defensive zone faceoff right before the game ended, the draw was taken by Craig MacTavish. Yzerman is taking the defensive zone faceoffs for the Wings without a doubt. I thought maybe it's a good idea to look at this in addition to the offensive numbers too.

 

[Boxscore]

If I'm being honest, I think this goes to Messier by a long shot. But Yzerman was such a great, and likable player - as well as person - that I think fans don't want to slight him.

But Messier is a different beast altogether. He has the major awards, he has the rings. He captained the Oilers to a Cup without Gretzky and Coffey. He ended the Rangers drought and brought them a Cup. He was one of the greatest leaders in sports. He has a damn award named after him. In his prime, he was a main fixture on those iconic Team Canada teams and Yzerman didn't make them.

Then you get into the intangibles, physical play, nastiness, intimidation, presence ... and this turns into a runaway for Mess IMO.

 

[quoipourquoi]

A couple things to add gang in Yzerman's favor......going away from the offensive numbers, Yzerman is the guy who was better defensively....Messier (in the Jeffrey Klein biography on him) was known for making the "dangerous/risky" cross-ice passes throughout his career (hence the Theo Fleury goal in OT Game 6), plus in the 94 finals Game 7, the very last defensive zone faceoff right before the game ended, the draw was taken by Craig MacTavish. Yzerman is taking the defensive zone faceoffs for the Wings without a doubt. I thought maybe it's a good idea to look at this in addition to the offensive numbers too.

I don't think that's a reflection on Messier being poor on faceoffs (after all, this is the guy who went something like 36/50 during Game 2 of the 1985 Finals to help tie the series at 1-1). More than that, Messier had already won the defensive zone faceoffs with 38 seconds left and 28 seconds left.

MacTavish's role was to win it, Bure's role was to one-time it, and Messier's role was to block Bure's shot from getting to Richter. That's why the game ends with Messier cross-checking Bure and Bure swinging wildly at MacTavish's feet.