Messier was a great player for us...but i never actually liked him...its ok, plenty of players on that 94 team that i loved...Graves, Leetch, Richter, Kovalev, Zubov...
just never really cared for Messier...I think his status as basically a god-like figure in rangerdom is well...imho...undeserved...but when you win 1 cup in a generation...and hes the captain...thats what happens.
This is very misinformed.
Every single member of that 94 team would disagree with you.
It's not like he scored a natural hat-trick in an elimination game after guaranteeing they'd win and force game 7 or anything. Without that NYR don't even make the SCF let alone win The Stanley Cup.
He was at the end of his prime but he was still an impact player and was an even better leader. Look at the way Leetch and Graves and Richter talk about him. You think they're making it up?
Messier is one of the greatest Rangers of all-time, and just so happens to be second all-time in scoring behind only The Great One
You "never cared for him?" Were you even alive in the 90's? I question whether you even watched his entire tenure with NYR.
Did you actually watch the way the team changed when he got to NY? His impact on Leetch reaching his potential, Presidents Trophies, Stanley Cup, Hart Trophy, almost another SCF appearance in 97 but ran into some injuries against a brutally tough Flyers team with Lindros, Leclair, Desjardins, etc in the ECF (btw Lindros blatantly hooked / waterski'd Messier to get that empty net goal).
I don't understand how a NYR fan could be so ungrateful. Who else came here and delivered a Stanley Cup? Who else was as much of a leader that all players looked to and followed? "Not caring for him" makes you sound like you never even watched him, except for maybe his last year playing with Josef Balej.