Bruins Analyst Andy Brickley Shares Top-Three ‘Scariest’ NHL Players

In honor of Halloween, longtime Boston Bruins analyst Andy Brickley discussed why Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier were two of the most feared players in the league because of their talent when he joined Adam Pellerin on NESN’s “The Hockey Hub.”

“This was when Gretzky was in LA and Messier was still in Edmonton,” Brickley explained. “And they came in back-to-back. … And those were my jobs. My job was to go against Gretzky for as much as possible. … And then the following game was against Messier.

“It was night and day in terms of how you had to guard these two guys. They were both scary in different ways.”

Brickley explained that Gretzky would put fear in players because he could “flat-out beat” his opponents, not just one-on-one, but with a pass or a give-and-go, and Messier would “look right through” his opponents.

“He’d give you that death stare,” Brickley said. “..,. He was Moose, that was his nickname. He was scary physically at a high pace of play. So they were the scariest.”

The retired NHL forward also added his former Pittsburgh Penguins teammate Mario Lemieux as another scary player because of his talent.

“I played with Mario, and I saw what he did to his opponents,” Brickley explained. “He put the fear of failure in a player that was trying to defend him. Mario could physically beat you in so many ways.

“… Mario was (6-foot-6) and could skate. He had the reach. He had the intelligence. He had the deception, and he had the shot. He had everything. Mario had everything, just didn’t have the health to challenge Gretzky’s numbers.”

You can listen to more of Brickley and Pellerin on “The Hockey Hub” on YouTube or Spotify.