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Messier Sends Message With a Quick Hit on Ex-Teammate Gretzky

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Times Staff Writer

Not long after the start of Saturday night’s game, Mark Messier of the Edmonton Oilers lowered his shoulder into his friend and former teammate, Wayne Gretzky, sending him sprawling across the ice.

A message had been sent: The Oilers came home to the Northlands Coliseum this weekend not to praise their former leader, but to bury him and his new team, the Kings.

The Oiler bench rose as one.

“Everyone knows how close they’ve been over the years,” Oiler Coach Glen Sather said of Messier and Gretzky. “(But) Mark’s a team player. He comes to this building to win and that’s what he’s going to do.”

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Messier, 28, has done the same thing for 10 seasons.

A rock-solid, 6-foot 1-inch, 210-pound center, he has long been among the most respected two-way players in the National Hockey League, a rough-and-tumble defender as well as a productive playmaker and scorer.

But always he had lingered in the shadow of Gretzky.

No longer.

With the departure of Gretzky last summer, Messier stepped into a new role as the Oilers’ leader both on and off the ice.

That much has never been more evident than in this best-of-seven Smythe Division semifinal playoff series, which the Oilers lead, 2-1, after a 4-0 victory before a crowd of 17,503.

His hit on Gretzky was only the latest example.

“Mark Messier can probably change the complexion of a game more than any other player in the league,” said Coach Robbie Ftorek of the Kings, who played with Messier in the World Hockey Assn.

Against the Kings this week, Messier has six points, including assists on two goals Saturday night, when his defense also helped the Oilers hold Gretzky without a point for the first time in 20 playoff games.

“He has played three awesome games--smart and strong, disciplined and intelligent,” Sather said.

Throw in physical, too.

All in a night’s work, according to Messier.

Even the hit on Gretzky was nothing special, he said.

“He was in position,” Messier said. “We’ve got to take his body, just like we’ve got to take (Luc) Robitaille’s body and (Bernie) Nicholls’ body.”

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Neither Robitaille nor Nicholls, however, is a close friend and former teammate.

What went through Messier’s mind as he belted Gretzky?

“Nothing really,” he insisted. “When he’s out there and he’s in position, we’ve got to take his body.”

Messier, obviously, takes a no-nonsense approach to the game.

With 163 points in 123 career playoff games, he ranks sixth on the all-time list, ahead of such legendary scorers as Gordie Howe and Mike Bossy, each of whom he passed this week, but he probably will be best remembered as much for his intimidating presence and his physicality as his productivity.

Gretzky outscored him in the postseason in 1984, when the Oilers won the first of four Stanley Cup championships, but Messier was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs’ most valuable player.

Four times, Messier has put together 100-point seasons. An eight-game suspension last October probably cost him a fifth.

Before Gretzky left, though, he stayed mostly in the background.

“As great as he is, he’s always been very comfortable being a role player,” said Oiler defenseman Kevin Lowe. “When Gretzky was the offensive thrust of our team, Mess was a strong two-way centerman and played against all the other tough centermen.

“And then, in games when Gretz was being checked, Mess would become the offensive thrust of the team.”

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Messier said he never felt the least bit slighted.

“I never felt that I played behind Wayne, or in his shadow,” he told the Edmonton Journal.

“I feel fortunate to have played on the teams that I did. I don’t think my career would ever have been as successful, or I would ever have got the notoriety, if I hadn’t been here the last 10 years.”

Actually, he probably would have gained more notoriety.

But perhaps not as many championship rings.

Sather isn’t so sure.

“Every series he’s ever played in the playoffs, he’s been strong,” Sather said. “He’s a great player.”

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