Do You Value MESSIER'S Opinion?

I definitely do especially since he thinks Crosby is the best NHL player right now!! NHL.com recently interviewed Mark Messier via telephone and the one thing that did catch my eye was this:

NHL.com: Putting you on the spot now, who do you think is the best player in today's game?

MM: I believe it is Sidney Crosby. Everybody has their own styles and likes and dislikes, but for me the first time I saw him play you could see he was something special. He plays with a lot of courage and in all the tough areas on the ice. He's tremendously skilled and uses the people around him unbelievably well. Not only is he an excellent playmaker, but he scores the goals, too.

MARK MESSIER could see Sidney was something special! Which is obviously why he chose him to receive the Mark Messier Leadership Award at the start of last year's All-Star game in Dallas. Messier is not the only elite NHL player to speak so highly of Sidney. Here are just a few of the others:

New Jersey Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur said one thing that impresses him about Crosby is his leadership on the ice. "You can tell when he talks out there," Brodeur said. "I'm right around him, and I hear him a lot." Asked to expand, Brodeur said the level of communication rises when Crosby's on the ice. "You can hear at faceoffs, he's setting up guys and doing a lot of different things that sometimes young guys don't even think about," Brodeur said. "They're just worried about winning the face-off. He's thinking about winning his faceoff and doing the things to get the other players to have a chance to be able to play with him."

"To see how he absorbs the attention and handles himself and genuinely wants to sell the game," Olczyk said, "it's quite special to see. He's the best player in the game, but he's an unbelievable kid, too, who knows who he is and where he wants to get to.
"He's just a solid person. Between the ears and inside the chest, he's a special guy."

When asked by The Arizone Republic if a player might one day break some of his NHL scoring records, Gretzky said, "Yes, Sidney Crosby. He's the best player I've seen since Mario [Lemieux]."