Top 22 Mark Messier Quotes

I’ve never really spent a lot of time thinking about my individual accomplishments actually.

But I just think as a captain, everybody’s different.

I think now what you’re seeing is guys that are in the peaks of their careers anywhere from 27 to 35 years old, seems to be when they play their best hockey.

Coaching really is an individual philosophy.

I never was brought into the league thinking as far as, you know, statistics, things like that. We were really brought into the league in a team concept. Everything was focused around winning.

I think the thing you always got to keep in mind, you know, hockey is a game of one-on-one battles.

I played with a lot of great players before. They’re all the same. They take a lot of responsibility for their own play, put a lot of pressure on themselves to perform and to play well.

25 years later, you know, I haven’t really put too much emphasis on any kind of individual goal, other than trying to win any particular night, trying to find a way to do that.

I think to compare any time you win a Stanley Cup would be unfair to all the players from all the teams.

I was assistant in Edmonton with Wayne as captain, and Kevin Lowe was the other assistant.

When Wayne was traded, I became captain. For me it really wasn’t anything – I didn’t do anything or I didn’t feel I had to do anything different than what I had been doing all along.

My jersey hanging from the ceiling is going to be a symbol of the hard work of the people I played with.

Well, my transition into being a captain was easy.

I just think overall a lot of it has to do with conditioning and players putting in the time and the effort in the off-season to keep themselves in condition for 12 months a year.

There was a time there in the mid ’80s to the ’90s there that we played six finals, three Canada Cups, we were playing hockey almost 10 months a year for a long time there.

Obviously every one of them was special to that particular team, all the people that were involved with it.

I think the idea of the obstruction through the neutral zone and away from the puck was an excellent rule.

As a captain, I think it’s important that the players really know who you are and what you stand for, what your beliefs are, and to be consistent in those if things are going good or things are going bad.

The only pressure I’m under is the pressure I’ve put on myself.

Like I said, a 30-year-old hockey player, even when I came to New York when I was 30, I was on the downside of my career, pretty much the end of my career.

I would never say one was more important or more gratifying than the next because there’s a tremendous amount of work, as you know, that goes into winning a cup.

It’s a tough game, and you never want to take that aspect out of the game.