Messier's finest moment was leading the Rangers to the 1994 Stanley Cup.

O! That I were as great
As is my grief, or lesser than my name,
Or that I could forget what I have been,
Or not remember what I must be now.

-- King Richard II, by William Shakespeare

He is not the Mark Messier of old. Time, that most relentless of adversaries, has robbed him of the felicitious blend of brutality and brilliance that transformed a rawboned kid from northern Alberta into the most complete package since Gordon Howe wore the winged wheel. But an old Mark Messier can still turn heads.

We, the doubters, who assumed that his age (41), offseason shoulder surgery and the persistent challenge of the bigger, stronger kids the game keeps churning out these days, the ones who care not for Mark Messier and his legend, would be enough to finally derail hockey's Streetcar Named Desire.

We who assumed that one more year would tarnish one of the most illustrious careers of recent times.

We assumed wrong.

Instead, Messier went back to Hilton Head, S.C., his offseason digs, worked that Jack Lalane body mercilessly, and reloaded.

Early on in this, his 24th NHL season, the N.Y. Rangers captain is enjoying a renaissance of sorts -- tied for the team lead in goals, at seven, and vying with a superstar from a succeeding generation, Pavel Bure. That goal total matches his 41-game output of a year ago, which ended with the shoulder surgery.

"When I think of him the first couple of years in Edmonton, when he was just getting started, to now, with what he's done and how long he's played, it's incredible," says Hall of Famer Jari Kurri. "What he's been able to do is change his game; understand as the years went on what he could and could not do anymore.

"He's a smart player. Smart players adjust.

"But it doesn't get any easier as you get older. Believe me. I know."

Messier is, after all, the last one still standing from the start of that 1980s Edmonton Oiler dynasty. Kurri is busy working TV and helping out with the Finnish national team. Wayne Gretzky is playing patriot games, planting loonies in Utah ice. Grant Fuhr just got back from an ESPN instructional shoot in Florida and coaches 11-year-olds in Edmonton. The Good Doctor, Randy Gregg, is still practicing medicine. Kevin Lowe is trying to sort out the Oilers.

	Mark Messier Center New York Rangers Profile
	CAREER STATISTICS GM G A PTS PIM 1621 665 1149 1814 1850 HOWE'S CAREER STATISTICS GM G A PTS PIM *1767 801 1049 ^1850 1685 * - First all time. ^ - Second all time.

Messier, alone, soldiers on.

For how much longer is anyone's guess. Ahead is Howe and second place on the all-time scoring list, now just 37 points in the distance. He's a little more than one season, 77 games, away from breaking Howe's mark of 1,924 for the most games played, regular-season and playoffs combined. Messier would require two completely healthy 82-game seasons (including this one), plus one game to eclipse Mr. Hockey's regular-season standard of 1,767. With an impending work stoppage on the horizon for 2004, that one likely seems out of reach.

"People keep talking about me passing Gordie (in points)," Messier is saying on this day in Calgary, one more day to go through the pre-practice ritual that has become second nature to him. "It's something I haven't really thought much about, to be honest. Whether I finish second, third, fourth or whatever ... that's not going to dictate the way I feel about my career.

"I don't feel I've got a legacy or anything else to protect or preserve. That just doesn't interest me. Never has.

"Obviously I'm not the player I was at 20. Or 30, for that matter. I'm just trying to reinvent myself so that I can contribute to this team at this age."

Why has Messier endured? Gretzky loved the game. Kurri loved the game. They all loved the game. Yet Messier is the one who has outlasted them all.

"Watch him. This is someone who's accomplished everything there is," says former Oiler teammate Steve Smith. "Over 1,300 points, five Stanley Cups, I can't remember how many Hart tropies and he still lights up like a little kid in a pond hockey game when he scores a goal or one of his teammates does.

"He has the most infectious smile I've ever come across.

"And that's his secret. He still gets a kick out of playing. For a lot of us, the wear and tear, the price you pay over a number of years, finally catches up to you and it's not that you care less about the game, but that the sacrifices don't seen quite as worth that price. The travel gets old, the practices become stale.

"Mark's stayed healthy. He's stayed in fantastic shape. And his appetite to play has remained strong. It has to have, otherwise he couldn't be still doing it, and doing it pretty well."

Since he returned to Manhattan, the scene of arguably his finest moment, the '94 Cup win, the Rangers have become $70 million poster boys for reckless spending.

"You have to believe you can win," Messier preaches. "When that goes, so does the desire. I've made a lot of sacrifices to continue playing, but it's what I want to do; it's because I still believe we can win here.

	More than 20 years after he broke into the league with the Oilers, Messier is still the 'prototype for a franchise player.'

"I think this team is better than it's shown. Obviously we don't deserve more because we haven't gotten the results.

"How long will I stick around? That's something I don't know. A lot of factors will be involved. How I feel physically up front among them."

Messier may not be keen to take stock of his own legacy. That really won't matter. Others will be more than happy to do it for him.

"Big. Strong. Fast. Great shot. Physical. Mean. Durable. Great leader. What else could you possibly ask for in any individual?" says an old adversary from the Battle of Alberta, defenseman Ric Nattress, now a pundit for the NHL Network. "Twenty years ago when he broke into this league, Mark Messier was the prototype for a franchise player.

"And he'll continue to be the prototype. Today, tomorrow and a hundred years from now."

Everyone who's played with or against him seems to have their own Messier moment; a goal or a hit or an image fixed in time that takes a measure of the man, his talent, his tenacity. Smith chooses a playoff game at the old Chicago Stadium. Messier had just been tagged with a pretty obvious cross-checking penalty ("Almost snapped his stick over the guy's neck, as I recall.").

"I will never, ever forget this," says Smith. "Mark is sitting in the penalty box, fuming, furious. We're looking at him across the ice from the bench and you could tell someone was going to pay when he got out of there.

"He steps out of the box, collects the puck and starts barreling down on Doug Wilson. Now remember, this is when Doug Wilson was winning Norris trophies. But I have never seen fear in a player's eyes like Doug Wilson's. Never. He looked like the red-headed stepchild. He had no idea what was going to happen. He had no idea how to handle this ... this force of nature coming at him."

A force of nature that has dissipated over the passing of the years, certainly. But one that is not yet entirely spent.

"What's unbelievable to me about Mark is that he still enjoys the game as much as he does," marvels another old teammate, stay-at-home defenseman Lee Fogolin. "When you think about how many games he's played over the course of his career ... regular season, playoffs, Canada Cups, internationals ... it's nothing short of unbelievable.

"But we're talking Mark Messier here. With him, the unbelievable you can believe."

George Johnson of the Calgary Herald is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.