- Mark Messier and FDNY hockey captain Larry McGee reunited 25 years after their moment at Madison Square Garden
- Messier wore Chief Ray Downey’s helmet before the Rangers’ first home game following the attacks
- Read below for what both men said about that night and where to watch the ABC special
Mark Messier pulled a firefighter’s helmet over his head at Madison Square Garden 26 days after 9/11.
Twenty-five years later, he sat down with the man who handed it to him.
The former Rangers captain and Larry McGee, captain of the FDNY hockey team, reunited on camera for “9/11: United We Stand – 25 Years Later,” the Michael Strahan-led special that premieres Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET on ABC and streams the following day on Disney+ and Hulu.
Take a look at the trailer:
Their moment came at the Rangers’ home opener on Oct. 7, 2001, a 5-4 overtime win against the Sabres. New York invited first responders down to the Garden, and McGee packed something nobody asked him to bring.
Asked why he made a point of carrying his helmet onto the ice, McGee kept it simple:
“The helmet is the staple of a fireman, that’s the only thing that separates you from other rescue workers, is the helmet.”
McGee copied a photo of Chief Ray Downey off the firehouse wall and stuck it on the front. Downey was the FDNY’s chief of special operations and a hockey nut, and he died in the tower collapse on Sept. 11, 2001, at age 63.
Out on the ice, the FDNY team lined up on the opposing blue line. Messier came out last, and he was the only man standing there without anything on his head.
Messier described what he assumed was happening when McGee skated over before the anthem:
“I thought he was just coming over there to shake my hand. And he did shake my hand, but then he said, ‘We would love you to wear Chief Downey’s helmet.’ At that point I’m thinking to myself, am I worthy of putting that helmet on?”
He put it on. The Garden honored Downey and the 343 members of the FDNY who died that morning.
MSG later ranked the Rangers’ 9/11 tribute among the 50 greatest moments in building history:
Looking back on it, Messier put the game itself in its place:
“There’s probably a handful of times in my career, over 26 years, that something was more important than that game at that time, and this was one of those games that felt secondary to acknowledging what these folks had done.”
Buffalo has gone back to that night too, bringing alumni Rob Ray, Marty Biron and J-P Dumont to New York with local veterans and Ground Zero first responders:
Six Stanley Cups put Messier near the top of every all-time NHL list anyone bothers to write. McGee had not seen him since that night in 2001 until the cameras rolled for this special.
That reunion landed hard for the fire captain:
“Seeing him here is emotional. Sports has always seemed to find a way to transcend any tragedy. There’s just something about sport, whatever sport. For us it was hockey, it was the Rangers, it was Mark.”
