Messier was supposed to push the Canucks -- a fairly young team four years removed from the Stanley Cup Finals -- to the next level.
Instead, he created division in the dressing room and caused the team to be dismantled prematurely. Beloved leadership and community figures were shipped out so that he and Keenan could consolidate control of the dressing room and create their own team culture. He was paid to provide additional leadership and on-ice contributions to help the team, but instead collected his paycheck pretending to be the team's manager for the first year and coasting on the ice for three seasons.
Additionally, he crossed several controversial boundaries, including with his demand of the #11 while ignoring the attempts of Wayne Maki's family to communicate with him about the subject. Messier and Keenan were sometimes spotted hanging around new owner John McCaw during as the team floundered during 1997-98.
He created a very hostile environment from the very start of his tenure in Vancouver, and the negative stigma attached to his name never left. Canucks fans did not accept his presence with the team. The team had sought a skilled center to make the roster better -- Wayne Gretzky, Doug Gilmour, and Adam Oates were all close to becoming Canucks around that time. After all of those failed attempts to acquire an extra piece for a playoff run, the Canucks went all-in for Messier.
People did not want to support the team during the Messier years.
It didn't help either that Messier and Keenan were the faces of the antagonists in 1994. Messier was, until his time in Vancouver, known as one of the meanest players around with a penchant for punishing opponents with dirty plays and big goals. Canucks players, Linden included, bled because of Messier in 1994. Messier didn't even seem awake while playing for the Canucks.
I'm mostly playing devil's advocate here but some of these charges could well be laid at the feet of the Sedins and some are just ridiculous; how dare he and Keenan hang out with the owner! The Sedins were signed to their current contracts in order to set the Canucks up for a new era of success which they have hardly done and they too don't seem to be awake some nights. Maki's number wasn't being used and wasn't retired so that is hardly a valid criticism either (Maki's biggest claim to fame was that he died tragically young and was involved in a brutal stick swinging incident with a Bruin player, he was no star). Nobody forced the Canucks to offer him that contract. Also remember that his first year here he was 37 years old, that is, the same age as the Sedins are now and despite several nagging injuries scored at a better pace than they are now. I agree that his time here was a disappointment but the hate he gets in Vancouver is irrational IMHO and should really be re-directed to Keenan who was, to me, the REAL bastard during this era, playing favorites and jettisoning good players that he had some problem with or other (he let Archie Irbe walk because he "didn't like small goalies" despite Irbe being one of the only bright spots here during that time). Not hating on the Sedins who are a whole lot more classy perhaps but the fact remains that Messier was a winner everywhere else and the Sedins haven't led us anywhere and it sure seems that people don't want to support the Canucks right now either, at least if the hockey message boards are any indication. Love him or hate him he is considered a legend everywhere in the league except Vancouver who, it would seem, would much prefer to revere the likes of convicted felon Bertuzzi or Burrows who is one of the most despised players in the league. Such contrarians.