They’ll Look to Messier : Hockey: With five Stanley Cup rings, he gives Rangers experience and hope for the playoffs.

Item: Mark Messier has more than three times as many playoff points (215) as the Rangers’ career playoff scoring leader, Rod Gilbert (67)!

While earning five Stanley Cup championship rings with the Edmonton Oilers in a seven-year span ending in 1990, Messier established his reputation as one of hockey’s top--if not best--playoff performers. His scowl, his Mack truck-skate-through-you style and raised-arms celebrations after goals are part of NHL folklore.

That is why Rangers General Manager Neil Smith acquired Messier from Edmonton on Oct. 4 for players and a sum believed to be $5 million. That is why Smith signed him on Dec. 11 to a five-year, $13-million contract. The deal includes $320,000 in bonuses if the Rangers win the Cup.

The Rangers (50-25-5) finished first overall this season. But they have not won a Cup in 52 years. They have not appeared in the finals in 13. In the past five seasons, they had a 9-17 playoff record, winning one of five series. They hope Messier helps them change that. He is a special player with the ability to raise his level of play at playoff time.

“Having been fortunate enough to have been down the road a few times,” he said, “I think I can lend some experience but I’ve got some help in Adam (Graves), Jeff (Beukeboom) and Randy Gilhen.”

Graves and Beukeboom were acquired by Smith from the Oilers in the past year. Gilhen got a ring with the Penguins last season. Graves remembers being inspired by Kevin Lowe and Messier after the Oilers fell behind the Jets 3-1 in the first round of the 1990 playoffs.

“They said, ‘We’re going to win this series,”’ Graves said. Messier got the game-winning goal in Game 5; the Oilers won the next two. “I can’t recall any particular thing Mess did,” Graves said. “He just played hard. He refuses to lose. It wears off on everybody else.”

Messier’s former linemate Glenn Anderson, now with the Maple Leafs, said, “Mess turns it up (in the playoffs). He’s able to be very disciplined. Guys will be trying to whack him, get him off his game, but he just focuses and doesn’t let anything bother him.”

Former Flame Doug Gilmour, now with Toronto, said Messier’s Flames nemesis Joel Otto would “just go head to head with him. But you can’t really intimidate a guy like Messier. You try to play him physically, running at him, to get him off his game. Otto wouldn’t follow him all over but he always knew where he was. He tried to wear him down by chopping at him.”

The Devils used right winger Claude Lemieux to check Messier this season and are expected to do so in the teams’ first-round playoff series, which begins Sunday night at Madison Square Garden. Messier was 6-4-10 against the Devils; the Rangers won the season series, 4-3.

“To be successful,” Messier said of the playoffs, “I don’t think you can let your emotions override your discipline. It’s great to play with emotion but you’ve got to be disciplined.” That means skating away from a slasher to accept a power play.

“Nobody gets a free whack on Mess,” said former Oilers goalie Grant Fuhr, now with Toronto. “They’ll pay for it down the line ... Come playoff time, he can do whatever it takes to win -- play physically, score a goal, make a finesse play. The Rangers are first overall. That’s a pretty good sign (of Messier’s impact). He’ll get the fire started in the rest of them.”

Messier’s 107 points left him two points shy of Jean Ratelle’s club record set in 1971-72. It was Messier’s seventh 100-point season in a 13-year career. Graves, who had 23 career goals before this season, got 28 playing with Messier. Linemate Tony Amonte led NHL rookies in points (69).

Messier said he was refreshed by a 17-day layoff due to scheduling and the strike. “After playing two games in 19 days,” he said, “we’re certainly not thinking the season is long ... We played a lot of intense games this year. The rest is going to be helpful.

“Everybody thrives on a challenge,” he added. “The great thing about playing a team sport is that you can do it collectively, feel the satisfaction of seeing a team pull together and do it as a group. It’s critical in the playoffs to get scoring from your third and fourth lines. We’ve been successful all year in getting that. That’s why we were able to play so consistently.

“Once the puck is dropped in the playoffs, though, it gives everybody a new life,” he said. “Everybody starts from zero. The regular season is in the record books.” Messier’s season is just beginning.