In 2001, the New York Rangers announced they planned to hold preseason games and practices at Madison Square Garden, but that plan was unfortunately scrapped when the 9/11 attacks brought activity in New York City to a halt.
And to Mark Messier, who was still the Captain of the Rangers at that point, it was a moment where the palpable buzz inside MSG for Blueshirts games not only disappeared for the moment, but for a few years afterwards.
“When I first came to New York in 1991, Friday nights at the Garden was some of the most fun hockey I’ve ever played, all the way through the 1994 Stanley Cup run and the roof coming off when we won,” Messier recalled with Moose & Maggie on Friday, one day before the 20th anniversary of the attacks. “We were supposed to be staying near the World Trade Center that year and doing things at Chelsea Piers until the canceled it…and to your point about games ensuing – it just took so long for that same energy to come back. There was just something a little muted there for quite a few years, and I could tangibly tell the difference.”
In that first season, though, Messier did give New York an unforgettable moment. On October 7, for the home opener against the Sabres, the Rangers honored many of the first responders involved in the recovery efforts on the ice during a pregame ceremony.
Larry McGee of Engine 66 in the Bronx was one of those in attendance, and on a whim, he grabbed the helmet of Ray Downey, the FDNY Chief of Operations who was lost in the collapse of the Twin Towers. Downey was the highest-ranking member of FDNY lost on 9/11, and his helmet was brought to honor his memory – and when McGee, who was the co-captain of the FDNY hockey team at the time, went over and gave it to a bare-headed Messier, the Captain promptly donned it.
“I remember thinking back that there was so much confusion, no one really knew what to do or say and was sensitive to everything going on.
Obviously we were going to go honor the first responders; it was a beautiful event, and Larry skated over on an impulse and asked me if I’d wear it,” Messier recalled. “Since then, I’ve become well aware of who Chief Downey was – he was a highly-respected man and a huge Rangers fan. It was an honor to wear his helmet, but it represented everybody. Kind of a seminal moment that happened spur of the moment.”
Messier still thinks about that moment quite often.
“I don’t think any of us will ever forget that moment, and the tragedy of 9/11. It’s a responsibility for us to never forget,” he said. “Doing these charity events like we’re doing today, to honor those who lost their lives and those loved ones who survived…it was a horrible event, but it was amazing how proud we all were that the city galvanized around each other in that moment. Here were are 20 years later still mourning, but celebrating the heroics that ensued and the human spirit.”
Messier had already had many signature moments with the Rangers – 1994 alone was littered with them – but that moment embodied the authenticity and honesty he embraced while playing in New York.
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“Coming from Edmonton where I had a mentor that was eight days younger than me in Wayne Gretzky, I learned a lot; very rarely do you get to learn from a peer, but he was so incredible from an early age, so mature, and I knew coming to New York, the one thing I’d have to be able to do was be honest and consistent,” Messier said. “Before social media, the only way you had to interact with fans was thru media, and being believable and trustworthy was the way to do it, and being consistent in that you had to face the music no matter the situation.”
Something, he remembered, fans saw from him in spades in that 1994 Stanley Cup run and subsequent parade up the Canyon of Heroes.
“We had a little bit of a hard hat mentality to our team that fans identified with. We went out of our way to be part of the community and had a lot of character on that team, so we connected on a meaningful level,” Messier remembered. “To be able to see three generations of fans see the Stanley Cup brought home…54 years is one thing, but all of those things came together in a perfectly beautiful moment.”
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