Mark Messier's 1995-96 season

whcanuck

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May 11, 2017
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Messier's 1989-90 season with Edmonton and 1991-92 season in New York get a lot of attention, and rightfully so. He was a monster leading the Oilers to the Stanley Cup without Gretzky and instantly took the Rangers to the top of the NHL in 1991-92, with a Stanley Cup coming to the big Apple two years later in 1993-94. Both those seasons netted him Hart Trophies.

But one of his best statistical seasons in New York was 1995-96, an effort that flies under the radar a bit. It was maybe his last year among the game's elite. He had 47 goals and 99 points in just 74 games and if not for Mario Lemieux going superhuman again, Mess likely takes home his third Hart Trophy. Sure the Rangers didn't win the President's trophy that year, and bowed out to Lemieux's Penguins in the second round of the playoffs...but Messier was solid in that postseason with 11 points in 11 games.

Who were Messier's linemates that year? What contributed to his highest goal total in more than a decade?
 

quoipourquoi

Goaltender
Jan 26, 2009
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He played with Graves and Verbeek.


From the excellent piece by Sports Illustrated in February 1996:


Messier grew up on the hard-partying Oilers, whose happy hour lasted almost a decade. "Someone asked me why I was having such a good year at 35"--there's that laugh--"and I told them all the years of clean living were finally paying off," says Messier, whose appetite for high life is now sated by slightly daintier portions.
 

The Panther

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Mar 25, 2014
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He really was on fire that season, especially in goal-scoring, which is odd, because you'd assume he'd be trying mostly to set up Verbeek (or Graves). He had a 12 goals-in-9 games stretch from New Year's eve through January. It's too bad he missed eight games late in the season, or he'd likely have had a 50-goal season. That would have been his 2nd such, 14 years after the first.

His plus/minus and shooting-percentage (of players who scored more than 7 goals) were also best on the Rangers. Adam Graves didn't have a particularly good year, so I suppose Pat Verbeek deserves some credit for this.
 

Albatros

Registered User
Aug 19, 2017
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His plus/minus and shooting-percentage (of players who scored more than 7 goals) were also best on the Rangers. Adam Graves didn't have a particularly good year, so I suppose Pat Verbeek deserves some credit for this.

First assists to his goals:

13 Verbeek
8 Graves
8 Leetch
6 Kovalev
2 Beukeboom
2 Driver
2 Robitaille
2 Samuelsson
1 Ferraro
1 McSorley
1 Presley
 

Edge

Kris King's Ghost
Mar 1, 2002
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I remember Messier looking 10 years younger in that season. I always felt his 96 season, and to a lesser extent his 97 season were underrated.

Had he not been hurt, he likely tops 50 goals and 105 points in a time period where those numbers were much less common than just two or three years prior.

But I think there are a few reasons that season tends to get overlooked.

For one, Lemieux had an out of this world season, though the entire Pens roster had almost video game like numbers. It was absolutely stacked offensively with Jagr, Francis, etc,

A lot of attention started shifting toward Lindros as the proto-power forward in the league. It was almost similar to the transition from Ewing to Shaq in the east. Bigger, younger, stronger.

The Rangers started to sputter down the stretch, namely when injuries took Messier, Verbeek and Richter out of the lineup. The secondary guys didn't necessarily step it up and the team made some big trade deadline moves that didn't pan out as a result. Needless to say the team somewhat stumbled into the postseason and got bounced by the Pens in the second round.
 
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agentblack

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Apr 11, 2011
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I remember Messier looking 10 years younger in that season. I always felt his 96 season, and to a lesser extent his 97 season were underrated.

Had he not been hurt, he likely tops 50 goals and 105 points in a time period where those numbers were much less common than just two or three years prior.

But I think there are a few reasons that season tends to get overlooked.

For one, Lemieux had an out of this world season, though the entire Pens roster had almost video game like numbers. It was absolutely stacked offensively with Jagr, Francis, etc,

A lot of attention started shifting toward Lindros as the proto-power forward in the league. It was almost similar to the transition from Ewing to Shaq in the east. Bigger, younger, stronger.

The Rangers started to sputter down the stretch, namely when injuries took Messier, Verbeek and Richter out of the lineup. The secondary guys didn't necessarily step it up and the team made some big trade deadline moves that didn't pan out as a result. Needless to say the team somewhat stumbled into the postseason and got bounced by the Pens in the second round.

Didnt Nedved have like 99 pts that year too? which would have given them 4 guys with 100 pts?
 

Edge

Kris King's Ghost
Mar 1, 2002
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Amish Paradise
Didnt Nedved have like 99 pts that year too? which would have given them 4 guys with 100 pts?

It was pretty insane. Nedved passes 100 if he doesn’t miss a couple of games.

Sandstorm and Zubov scored at more than a ppg pace, Smolinksk scored 64 points and Naslund scored at a 60+ pace at the time of his trade.
 

The Panther

Registered User
Mar 25, 2014
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Didnt Nedved have like 99 pts that year too? which would have given them 4 guys with 100 pts?
The Pens scored 362 goals that season, which is what Calgary and Edmonton were getting around 1987-1988. Only two other teams in the League (Colorado, Detroit) even made it to 300, and they were each nearly half-a-goal per game behind the Pens.

Poor Ottawa scored 191, meaning they averaged 2.33 GPG, while Pittsburgh averaged 4.41 GPG.

If Nedved had had one more point, and if Sandstrom had been healthy all season (I realize that's unlikely at any time), they might have had five 100-point scorers.
 
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agentblack

Registered User
Apr 11, 2011
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I feel like this season will be like E.Staal’s last season, incredible in it’s unexpectedness but ultimately buried under all the major accomplishments
 

streitz

Registered User
Jul 22, 2018
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Messier's 1989-90 season with Edmonton and 1991-92 season in New York get a lot of attention, and rightfully so. He was a monster leading the Oilers to the Stanley Cup without Gretzky and instantly took the Rangers to the top of the NHL in 1991-92, with a Stanley Cup coming to the big Apple two years later in 1993-94. Both those seasons netted him Hart Trophies.

But one of his best statistical seasons in New York was 1995-96, an effort that flies under the radar a bit. It was maybe his last year among the game's elite. He had 47 goals and 99 points in just 74 games and if not for Mario Lemieux going superhuman again, Mess likely takes home his third Hart Trophy. Sure the Rangers didn't win the President's trophy that year, and bowed out to Lemieux's Penguins in the second round of the playoffs...but Messier was solid in that postseason with 11 points in 11 games.

Who were Messier's linemates that year? What contributed to his highest goal total in more than a decade?


His main linemate was Mark Messier himself in the form of his leadership.
 

Big Phil

Registered User
Nov 2, 2003
31,703
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I don't know if it was an unusual thing to say that Messier would get a 99 point season at that point in his career. He was doing very similar totals in his previous 5 years. The 47 goals thing sort of jumps out a bit, but not the 99 points to me.
 
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NYR94

Registered User
Mar 31, 2005
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Verbeek wasn't a Ranger for long but I remember him really clicking with Messier. Messier, Graves and Verbeek all finished with at least 100 PM too. That 95-96 season was a fun ride for Rangers fans until a kind of shaky performance against Montreal in the playoffs and then getting eliminated by Pit.
 
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The Panther

Registered User
Mar 25, 2014
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What a great leader! What a giant among men! How'd he do in '97? :popcorn:
If you refer to 1996-97, he was still awesome, matching Gretzky in scoring. However, his five-on-five was starting to suffer and a late-season injury really slowed him down. As it turned out, it was one injury too many and one he never really entirely recovered from.

It was 1997-98 when he visibly started to slow down, and joining the bottoming-out Canucks didn't help.
 

jghockey

Registered User
Aug 14, 2018
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If you refer to 1996-97, he was still awesome, matching Gretzky in scoring. However, his five-on-five was starting to suffer and a late-season injury really slowed him down. As it turned out, it was one injury too many and one he never really entirely recovered from.

It was 1997-98 when he visibly started to slow down, and joining the bottoming-out Canucks didn't help.

He was also distracted '97 was the last year on his contract, and the Rangers weren't offering him a new one.
 

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