You've got it backwards. We f***&* hate Messier, and Linden was a god (until recently). But thats all beside the point.
What's funny is I lived in Vancouver at the time Messier played there, and I still don't understand the hate that he got. He played incredibly well for a 35-39 years old. 0.78 PPG in the Dead Puck Era.
Every Single Canuck on the entire team PRAISED his leadership. Marcus Naslund, Todd Bertuzzi, Ed Jovonovski, and Mattias Ohlund attributed their development to his leadership skills.
Mess even had them single-handedly in a playoff race his final year there until he suffered a nasty knee injury derailed the entire team into an abysmal tailspin.
His return sparked a playoff run that brought them within 1 point of the playoffs (Oilers knocked them out the final game of the season).
But the kicker is this: The Vancouver fans HATED the Linden Trade. HATED, they rant about it, even till this day.. cursing Messier's name.
But I mean, they DID get the most dominant Power Forward of the time in Todd Bertuzzi, Brian McCabe, and Jarkko Ruutu. It was a monumental fleecing of of the legendary doofus Mike Milbury but Vancouverites seem to ignore that trading away Linden made them better in the present, and WAY better in the near future.
It's so absolutely backwards and nonsensical, and completely and absolutely stupid.