Messier passes Howe

Well, the day many Wings fans have been dreading is here: Mark Messier passed Gordie Howe to take second in NHL career points to Gretzky. He's at 1,851 pts now. Messier has been in the league since the '79-80 season, where he began his career with the dynasty Edmonton Oilers and racked up a lot of his pts in a short span of time. It's pretty cool that Messier has been able to play this long, but I am not a huge fan of his. From what I've heard, he's a jerk. He dances around in celebration after empty net goals and such, which is a huge breach of respect for players in their unwritten code of ethics. Whatever, I don't know enough about the guy to make any encompassing judgements, but all's I have to say is that I'm pieved that he was able to pass Gordie in points. But you really can't compare the two, as Gordie's NHL career ended in '70, when he went to play in the WHA (where he also racked up a lot of points), and his hockey career ended in '79, just as Messier's began. And Messier got a lot of points in a time of offensive assault, where defense wasn't really strressed, so it's hard to say whether he could've amassed so many points in any other time. Same could be said of Gretzky. I don't hold much credibility with the subject, as I was born much after their time. Heck, I'll even say Messier was playing in the NHL 6 seasons before I was born. I'll leave the math to all you scholars... I'm off to bed.