I double-dare anyone in Rangerville to deny the following statement:”Neil Smith’s trade for Mark Messier is considered as the greatest trade im Rangers’ history.”
The observation appears in prolific Rangers historian-author Sean McCaffey’s book Tricks Of the Trade.
“Deny that if you can!” demands The Maven since I know that Pal McCaffrey is right.
But clouded behind Moose’s captaining the Blueshirts to the 1994 Cup – do you go back to that century? Stanley Cups are conveniently forgotten Messier-Rangers facts.
One worthy hockey historian who has not developed that uncommon ailment called “Messier Amnesia” is former Newsday columnist and hockey archivist Joltin’ Joe Dionisio.
Having read my comment that Messier’s second stint with the Rangers was “the most forgotten aspect of his career,” Joe writes back that one was even worse. Maybe two.
After heroically leaving the Rangers for the first time, Mess was an abject failure in Vancouver where he – rather embarrassingly – spun his wheels with the Canucks.
And speaking of wheels, Joltin’ Joe offers a further Messier failure: “Barely two weeks before the Blueshirts won the 1994 Cup, Moose appeared on the cover of the Hockey News. And whose jersey was he wearing? Rangers? Oilers? Team Canada? WHA Racers? or Stingers? No.
“He was sporting the Tampa Bay Tritons of Roller Hockey International, which he co-owned. Brother Paul Messier was coach. And one more factoid even more forgotten, the Stanley Cup’s first visit to Tampa was not with the Lightning but with the Tritons!”
Turns out that Mark imported the trophy soon after the Rangers’ Canyon of Champions victory parade. Messier’s Tritons failed after one year of operation.
The Maven knows that for a fact since Maestro Dionisio – also hockey columnist for the Palm Beach Post played his pro roller hockey for RHI’s Florida Hammerheads in West Palm Beach.
Back to Messier, Mark’s other genius roller hockey move was to pick jersey colors for his Tampa Bay Tritons. Get a load of this: they were jade and eggplant!
Well if the Rangers are the Blueshirts, Messier’s team had to be Eggplantshirts, right?
Dionisio: “Eggplant Shirts lack the same charisma as Blueshirts. In fact it sounds more like the stain on my shirt after our Italian family dinner!”
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