so then why wasnt messier's guarantee stupid? The only reason was that he won. And in hockey there are many times when you do everything you can but your team loses. I want my team to be confident that they can win, i honestly dont care if they verbalize that confidence to the media or not. I dont think that girardi was playing defense and said "oh, ovechkin guaranteed a win, let me try extra hard now to stop him." The guarantee doesnt change anything on the ice.
When Messier made his guarantee, the Rangers were behind, not in middle of collapsing like the Caps.
Messier was able to score his way to the win, netting 3 goals.
He also was a proven winner with 4 or 5 rings at the time.
And it was in an era when goals were easily scored, where one of the best players of all time could nearly score at will.
And it was vs an unproven rookie goalie.
Eta: In modern hockey the best players in the league can't guarantee anything. The teams are too even and the scoring is way down. Wow so Ovi, scored a goal? That's called being dominant nowadays, and that doesn't guarantee you win games. Back in the day if Gretzky, Lemuiex, or Messier made a guarantee, that would one of the few situations where making a guarantee is acceptable for me and not just a distraction.