Edmonton Oilers should call up Ben Gleason to be the team's seventh defenseman over Philip Broberg.

The media caucus had Mark Messier in check at the Cap Centre when a little boy in an Edmonton Oiler ballcap poked his head around the comer. “Hey, Lyon,” yelled Messier, working his way free to hug the other love of his life—his l’/z year-old son.

“Okay, where were we?” said Messier, holding the boy who lives with his mother, former model Lesley Young, in Virginia.

This was the soft side of Mark Messier. But the Oiler captain is still hockey’s Raging Bull. Robert DeNiro could play him if he put on 50 pounds of muscle.

In a game of hi-tech, Messier is aw-heck. You might get a shot to the head as easily as one on net. He’s mean.

“There’s not very much room,” Messier said. “You’ve got to fight for it, you have to create space one way or anomer, out mean; I've said before I can’t remember half of what goes on out there. I think the game for me happens on instinct. Nothing is pre-meditated.”

Still, Messier fosters his image as somebody you should avoid bothering. But there’s more to this equation than meanness and the raw muscle of his chiselled 6-foot-l, 210-pound frame. Start with 34 goals, 64 assists, 56 penalty minutes in 61 games and immeasurable leadership as his Oilers battle for first place in the Smythe Division and take a run at a fifth Stanley Cup.

Fact is, Messier can beat you just about any way you want. And this season, he just may be the NHL’s MVP. You can make a case for many this season: Ray Bourque, Pat LaFontaine, Brett Hull, Mario Lemieux or Wayne Gretzky. But you can’t ignore Messier and what he’s done for the Oilers.

As the Oiler caravan recently wheeled from Hartford to Detroit, into a game of Super Mario in Pittsburgh, then off to Washington, New Jersey and the Big Apple—going 1-3-2—Messier was clearly the man of the hour. Or 65 minutes on three overtime occasions.

For nine years, Messier played in Wayne Gretzky’s huge shadow. He was the dark side of hockey’s biggest star; the crash that followed the flash. Gretzky could make himself disappear and reappear; Messier just came at you. No smoke, no mirrors.

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From the Archive - The Raging Bull