No other former player is as vilified in Vancouver as Mark Messier.
His name is usually subject to epithets by Canucks fans and it's not entirely without reason. He was already a villain in Vancouver for his years with the Edmonton Oilers, who repeatedly ran rampant over the Canucks in the old Smythe Division, then solidified his villainous status as the captain of the New York Rangers in the 1994 Stanley Cup Final when he hit an already injured Trevor Linden away from the play in Game 6.
Then he became a Canuck.
He was supposed to help turn the team's fortunes around after the Canucks missed the playoffs for the first time in seven years in 1996-97. Instead, he was a shadow of his former self, oversaw the dismantling of a beloved core alongside Mike Keenan, and captained the Canucks to three more seasons outside of the playoffs. It was only when he left that the Canucks got back to the playoffs in the 2000-01 season and brought fans back with the West Coast Express era of the team.
Canucks fans would love to forget Mark Messier, forget that he ever played for the team, and especially forget that he ever wore the captain's C. It's actually really easy to forget that Messier was a Canucks captain. Henrik Sedin forgot in his King Clancy acceptance speech and the Canucks forgot in Quinn Hughes' captaincy announcement.
But the NHL won't let Canucks fans forget.
It's not enough that the NHL has the Mark Messier Leadership Award, an official award that is named after Mark Messier and decided on solely by Mark Messier. At least that only comes once a year. No, now Canucks fans will face the ignominy of having Mark Messier on broadcasts of Canucks games.
Four Canucks games this season won't be available on Sportsnet — the first time since the team experimented with pay-per-view games that Sportsnet won't be carrying all 82 games of the Canucks schedule. Instead, those four games will be available on Amazon's streaming service, Prime Video, on their Prime Monday Night Hockey broadcast.
On Monday, the NHL announced the broadcast team for Prime Monday Night Hockey, headlined by none other than the Moose himself: Mark Messier.
Play-by-play duties will be handled by veteran announcer John Forslund, with a trio of former NHL players as analysts: Jody Shelley, Thomas Hickey, and Shane Hnidy. Andi Petrillo and Adnan Virk will be co-hosts at the sports desk, with analyst Blake Bolden joining them as well as "a mix of local guests."
That's all well and good. But also joining them on the desk as an analyst will be Mark Messier.
If that's not enough, Messier will also be providing "ten captivating segments featuring stories from his legendary career to air throughout the season." How many of those segments will feature his time with the Canucks?
So, four times this season, Canucks fans will have their viewing experience interrupted by the most hated player in franchise history. More than that, he'll be providing analysis of those four Canucks games during intermissions. Even more than that, Canucks fans will get a "vignette" of a "captivating" story from his "legendary career."
I'm not sure that's going to sell Prime Video subscriptions in Vancouver, Amazon.
Here are the four games that will be exclusively available on Prime Video featuring Mark Messier:
- December 23: San Jose Sharks @ Vancouver Canucks
- January 6: Vancouver Canucks @ Montreal Canadiens
- January 27: Vancouver Canucks @ St. Louis Blues
- March 24: Vancouver Canucks @ New Jersey Devils
