Mattias Ohlund's reflections on Mark Messier

With Mark Messier's induction into the Hockey Hall of fame came several articles. One of which included an Ohlund quote on Mark Messier (Elliott Pap's article yesterday):

"I came in the same year as Mark and, with him being the high profile guy he was, he obviously took a lot of the blame for the stuff that went on here," current Canuck Mattias Ohlund said this week.

Ten years later, Ohlund chooses to recall Messier's positives rather than the many negatives of the day. He also remembers his first time meeting the Moose.

"Was I intimidated? Absolutely," Ohlund smiled. "I was 20 years old and just over from Sweden. I remember our first training camp in Whistler, the first day, he invited me to play golf with him, his dad and his brother. Mark was someone who really looked after the younger guys. As a teammate, he was very classy and I'm honoured to have played for one of the all-time bests. I have nothing but good things to say about him."

Now that they're the veterans, Markus Naslund and Mattias Ohlund have continued that class and support in their treatment of the younger guys too.

I found this Swedish blog posting which also showed that Messier had positives to say about Ohlund too.. (I can't quite determine the source though. By the way, a translation would be nice if anyone has the time.)