NHL great Mark Messier is widely regarded as one of the best players in the history of the league. Messier and Wayne Gretzky were teammates in Edmonton and went on to win four Stanley Cup titles together.
During a recent appearance on the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast, Mark Messier humorously compared his and Wayne Gretzky’s mindsets as young players. Messier pointed out that while Gretzky was focused on scoring goals, he himself was more concerned with social activities after the game.
“Someone said, well, what’s the difference between you and Wayne? I go, well, the difference right now is that Wayne is thinking about how he’s going to score three goals tomorrow night, and I’m thinking about where we’re going to go with that for the game. You know what I mean? That’s a big difference,” Messier said.
Ryan Whitney humorously insisted that both types of focus were necessary. Paul Bissonnette joked that Gretzky knew where the puck was going, while Messier knew where the girls were. Messier emphasized the difference, calling it a “big delta” at 18 years old.
“If we didn’t do that, he wouldn’t have felt like part of the team. You know what I mean? We had guys that could, you know, rip on him if he was late for the bus, or the bus was being held up, and he would take it in good stead,” Mark Messier added.
Mark Messier opens up on fifth Stanley Cup win without Wayne Gretzky
On the same podcast, Mark Messier also discussed the Edmonton Oilers’ fifth Stanley Cup win, which was particularly meaningful as it was achieved without Wayne Gretzky. Ryan Whitney pointed out that it was Messier’s best season statistically and his highest-scoring playoffs and asked him what fueled their championship run.
“Wayne gets traded, so we all got to come to terms with that. So then we say, we huddle back with all the veterans. We go, look, we’ve been through a lot together, you know, we can’t give up on each other. We can’t give up on the fans,” Messier said.
“As much as we’re pissed off at the owner and the organization for doing it, we can’t give up on that. I mean, so we got to buckle down, and how are we going to buckle down? So sure enough, who do we play in the first round of the playoffs? LA Kings. And who beats us? Wayne.”
This loss led to criticism and doubts about the Oilers’ ability to win without Gretzky. He said:
“And now they are going, ‘You guys suck. You guys are never gonna win.’ You know, just everybody chirping this and all that. And I’m going, yeah, you f*ckers, yeah we’ll see.”
Messier then recalled the determination and grit that fueled their eventual championship run, stating that their victory was a testament to their experience, toughness, and resilience.
