September is a great time to be a hockey fan.

Ever since the Vancouver Canucks took their unlikely ride to Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Final in 1994, their best month has been September, while October has been one of the worst. After coming so close to winning it all in ’94, hopes were high to go just one game better the following season. The reality of the 1994 owners’ lockout postponed those expectations for a full three months, then the season turned into a fairly forgettable .500 effort with a very mediocre playoff performance.

In the summer of 1995, hockey fans were excited about the soon-to-be-completed new General Motors Place; then, Pat Quinn reinforced his desire to build the strongest possible team when he acquired nifty Russian star Alex Mogilny for a bunch of unproven young prospects. Once holdout captain Trevor Linden was signed, that was supposed to be the year the Canucks took their offense to the next level. Instead, while Mogilny met expectations, Pavel Bure blew out his knee 13 games into the season and rumors of strife and conflict swirled around players and coaching staff alike. After months of speculation, Pat Quinn fired his taciturn coach, Rick Ley, and stepped behind the bench himself. Nevertheless, even the master was unable to overcome questionable netminding from both his goaltenders as the Canucks fell in the first round of the playoffs to the eventual champions, the Colorado Avalanche.

So, in the summer of 1996, Quinn addressed the dissension in the dressing room by hiring a young, articulate "players’ coach", Tom Renney. Changing the mood was supposed to fix the vibe in the Vancouver dressing room and once again, come training camp, fans were cautiously optimistic about the fresh start. Once again, it didn’t take long for the vision to unravel. Injuries were a big factor, and no Renney speeches or slogans could cover up for a porous defense and shaky goaltending. A few big-margin losses quickly drained away all the promised team-spirit, so in-fighting and finger-pointing became the team traditions in a year where the Canucks failed to make the playoffs for the first time this decade.

On July 28, 1997, Pat Quinn pulled his annual summer public relations maneuver when he announced the signing of six-time Stanley Cup winner and unrestricted free agent center Mark Messier from the New York Rangers. Just three years ago, through that emotional Stanley Cup Final, Messier had been the sworn enemy. He had bullied the Canucks like a big kid on the playground through all his years with the dynasty in Edmonton. But every ounce of bitterness was forgotten the minute he slipped on his new Killer Kanuck jersey. Every Vancouver hockey fan expressed nothing short of awestruck gratitude that Quinn had managed to land this most-prized catch of the summer for as many as five seasons.

Granted, as Messier enters this contract at age thirty-six, his 100-point years are probably behind him: he last accomplished that feat back in 1991-92, his first year with the Rangers. Nonetheless, his 84 points with the Rangers last season would have put him first on the Canucks in goals scored, assists, and total points. Plus, the Canucks’ long-term need for a first-line center is very well documented. Pat Quinn has tried to draft one in Petr Nedved (1990), Mike Peca (1992) and Josh Holden (1996), just to name a few. Trevor Linden was converted from right wing to the middle to help fill this gap several years ago, and while some will still disagree, he now plays the position with comfortable ease. But he isn’t a Sakic, a Forsberg, a Fedorov, or a Gretzky -- even the Great One was courted to fill the hole last summer when he was a free agent, but a last-minute power play by Canuck management killed negotiations and sent the Great One packing for the Big Apple.

Last fall, after Cliff Ronning was lost to free agency, Linden was hurt and second-liner Mike Ridley was constantly on the bubble with his mysterious back and leg ailment. The Canucks’ need for a quality pivot became so glaringly obvious that Alex Mogilny essentially offered himself up as trade bait if that’s what it would take for the Canucks to fill that void. His words got twisted around into something more like "Get me a center or trade me", and that misconception still haunts both Mogilny and the Canucks as the Russian sits out through training camp waiting for a new deal.

This summer, with the memory of the failed Gretzky deal still fresh, Pat Quinn and Orca Bay ownership stopped at nothing to bring home the prize. It has been widely assumed that Messier and the Rangers were bonded together till the end of the player’s career, so when the free agent first revealed that he would be interested in entertaining offers from other teams, Quinn wasted no time. In a matter of days, he and then-Orca Bay President John Chapple were on the plane to the Messier family compound in Hilton Head, S.C., where they announced their intention to stay until a deal was done. Quinn had already extracted a promise from Messier’s father-agent, Doug, that all bargaining would be in good faith and that the family objective was not to glean the richest possible offer, then take it back to the Rangers to be matched or bettered.

Quinn remained in Hilton Head for a few days, talking hockey and philosophy with the Messiers, then returned to Vancouver to attend to other business. John Chapple stayed behind, extracted one more dinner invitation from the family, and re-affirmed ownership’s commitment to bringing a winner to Vancouver. Within a few more days, the Messiers were on Orca Bay owner John McCaw’s yacht in San Francisco Bay.

After dealing with the big corporations that have owned the New York Rangers during Messier’s tenure, this personal touch likely had a strong positive influence. On Saturday, July 26, on that boat, a contract was hastily scribbled and signed by both parties. On Monday, the Canucks held one of the most celebratory news conferences in their history, introducing their new prize to fans and media alike. The press conference was carried live on the local noon news and, nationally, on Canada’s Sports Network, TSN.

Sports fans in Vancouver are modest sorts. They like a little entertainment for their dollar, but they don’t expect too much from their teams. The Canuck squads of 1994 and 1982, which made the Stanley Cup finals, are dear to everyone’s heart. The CFL Lions have won two Grey Cups in the past two decades in a nine-team league but don’t get treated too differently from year to year whether they are winning or losing. The NBA Grizzlies have easily recorded their league’s worst-ever record over their first two years, yet fans still come out in droves to enjoy the evening and cheer on these incredibly unsuccessful players. Heck, Vancouverites are so starved for championships that many still remember with great fondness when the Vancouver Whitecaps took the North American Soccer League title back in the late 1970s!

At Messier’s introductory press conference, you could hear the sound of jaws dropping all over British Columbia when Messier announced that he was here -- not only because he liked Pat Quinn’s philosophy and wanted to end his career back in Canada, but also because he thought the Canucks had the tools to win a Stanley Cup! Such words have probably never been uttered by a Canuck player before. The party line is "we will try our best but there are a lot of good players and good teams out there and you never know what can happen." The only other show close to this level of self-confidence was Pavel Bure. At his first-ever press conference, the young Russian knew almost no English, but quickly stated his intent to score 50 NHL goals. He became the first Canuck to accomplish that feat, so maybe there is something to be said for this type of positive thinking.

Mark Messier is a champion, and he thinks like a champion. Much has been made of his "leadership", but with Messier, it’s more than just hype. He’s got the Conn Smythe Trophy -- from the Oilers’ first win in 1984 -- two Hart Trophies, from the Oilers in 1990 and the Rangers in 1992, and six Stanley Cup rings, more than any other active player, to prove that he wants to win, and he knows how. That desire was obvious the day he arrived in Vancouver, and it was obvious again at the start of training camp when he talked about how the day was nothing to get too excited about, but was a chance to begin the journey that would, eventually, lead to the Stanley Cup.

Before he even steps on the ice, Messier’s influence has been felt in a number of ways by the Canucks. The day he was signed, his old coach Glen Sather said he would "whip those Russians into shape". He hasn’t had a chance to work on holdout Alex Mogilny yet, but Messier has already taken a strong interest in the Pavel Bure mystery. After two lackluster, injury-filled seasons, Bure is looking for some sort of fresh start, firing his agent and reportedly asking for a trade. Instead of using the "Don’t let the door hit ya on the way out" philosophy, Messier has gotten himself quite involved in the situation. At first, he spoke only of Bure’s talent and refused to comment further until he had spoken personally to the player himself. He got that opportunity on the first day of camp, when the Canucks coaching staff put the two together on a line with Markus Naslund, and Messier spoke immediately of the good chemistry between the three and how he hoped they could stay together. This past week, he has made no bones about his opinion that Bure is one of the most talented players in the league. Indications are that he wants the Russian Rocket to stay and play on his right side. During training camp at Whistler, Messier and his brother Paul had dinner one night with Bure and his new agent Mike Gillis, and afterward Messier said, "Sometimes you can feel that chemistry right away and I’ve assured Pavel that it’s going to be fun and the best way to have fun is to win."

New York sports fans were outraged when Rangers management chose to let Messier, a proven winner, get away -- especially after quickly re-signing New York Knicks’ veteran Patrick Ewing this summer, although he has yet to bring home a championship. Whether or not this is after-the-fact revisionism, there are rumors that the MSG group was not 100 percent sad to see Messier go due to the wide extent of his influence with the team. The Canucks are hoping that this type of influence is exactly what they need to get themselves turned around, and Operation Bure could quickly prove, one way or the other, whether or not John McCaw’s money was well-spent.

At the Canucks’ training-camp-ending "Blue and Silver" intrasquad game at Whistler on Sept. 13, Messier played only one period with Bure and Naslund before pulling himself out of the game with a sore groin. While the line failed to score, his absence was noticeable through the rest of the contest and disappointed many of the 700 or so fans that squeezed into the Meadow Park Sports Centre to see the Canucks’ latest acquisition.

Some might say that Messier is taking advantage of his status by making such a move, but the player himself said that, since his groins and lower back were a bit stiff, he thought it better to rest them than risk making the situation worse. According to Messier, this type of soreness has happened at other camps in the past, so hopefully it is not a sign of ongoing wear on his battle-weary body. With his record, one has to assume that Messier is the kind of player who knows when to take it easy and when to go hard -- remember when he had a cut on his chin stitched while standing on the bench during last year’s playoffs? I’d even hazard a guess that Messier didn’t feel like participating in the scrimmage at all yesterday and would have been within his rights to take the whole day off, but he suited up and gave the fans their money’s worth in one period -- all for the good of the team, without sacrificing any future benefit as the season wears on.

September is a great time to be a hockey fan. No games lost, no injuries sustained, all the youngsters full of enthusiasm and promise at the thought of grabbing a spot on the big squad.

Canuck fans have fallen in love with September over the past few years, since once the season starts it’s been all downhill from there. This year, we’ve got the Nagano Olympics to look forward to, a new-style All Star Game hosted right here in Vancouver, and the first-ever NHL league games in Japan to start the season.

Right now, though, there is nothing causing more excitement in this hockey-mad town than the prospect of a five-year love affair with the Man they call Moose -- or Messiah.

[ issues | web extra | stats | nhl archive | home | chat | mailing list | about us | search | comments ]

1997 © Copyright LCS Hockey All Rights Reserved