By keith Gave SportsLine.com Senior Writer

They lined up beside one another on the face-off circle, a moment both had anticipated for years. The youngster, getting his first taste of the NHL, was too nervous to even speak. The veteran looked at him and winked. "Keep your head up, kid," he said. "I know all your moves."

Adam Graves and Tyler Bouck are at opposite ends of their NHL careers, but they're closer than most brothers. Graves, 32, is a forward for the resurgent New York Rangers entering his 12th NHL season. Bouck, 20, is a rookie facing the formidable task of cracking the lineup in Dallas. For half his life or more, Bouck has idolized Graves. Saturday night, in an exhibition game at Dallas' Reunion Arena, the two played on opposite sides for the first time in the NHL.

Hockey is a game passed down from generation to generation, and here was one of its sweetest moments. "That's the most nervous I've ever been before a game," Bouck told SportsLine.com. "When he said that to me in the face-off circle, I just didn't know what to say, so I didn't say anything. Adam is probably the biggest reason I'm with the Dallas Stars today."

The two met a decade ago on a golf course in Edmonton, where Bouck grew up. Graves was a young star with the Oilers then, and Bouck was his caddie in a charity event. "After that, I wrote him and he sent me some autographed pictures," Bouck said. "I wrote him back, and he invited me to skate with the Oilers. "Once he left Edmonton, I thought the friendship would stop." It didn't. Adam Graves never forgets his friends, but Bouck was just 13 at the time, too young, perhaps, to believe such a star in the NHL couldn't just walk away and forget about him. Graves is an anachronism in today's sporting world. He is selfless almost to a fault, a kind, caring man who has never been comfortable talking about himself.

He is an athlete who excels at his sport, but uses his station in life as a vehicle to help others. Last season, Graves was presented with the NHL Foundation Player Award for his lifelong commitment to community causes. He dedicated his $25,000 donation to the neonatal intensive care unit of the White Plains Hospital Center for the purchase of an infant bay in the special care nursery, for a very personal reason. Bouck, who would get an annual invitation to spend time with Graves and his family at their home in Windsor, Ontario, is just one of many hearts Graves has touched along the way.

But Graves has been around long enough to understand the cycle of life in the NHL. Not so long ago, it was he who acted like the puppy following Mark Messier around in the Edmonton dressing room. The two were teammates in New York and instrumental in helping the Rangers end a 54-year drought by winning the Stanley Cup in 1994. Now, they're together again, with Messier booked for an encore performance on Broadway after three years in Vancouver.

Messier's mere presence has resuscitated a floundering franchise, said Graves, whose reverence for Messier transcends brotherhood. His words, in fact, are awe-inspiring. "Everybody knows about his intangibles," Graves said of Messier. "As a leader, he's second to none. There's no greater leader in team sports. But the thing people tend to overlook is that he's still a great player. He can still skate. He can still pass, can still play. I'm just so glad to have him back."

Messier is hardly the only new face in town, however. Glen Sather, who as general manager in Edmonton drafted Messier, signed him as a free agent in the offseason after taking control of the Rangers. Ron Low, the former Oilers coach, is behind the bench implementing an up-tempo skating offense well suited to players like Messier and wingers like Theo Fleury and Valery Kamensky, free agent busts a year ago when the Rangers missed the playoffs for a third straight season after an unprecedented spending spree. "So far, it's been very satisfying," Low said. "I've seen some good things from a lot of guys who had awful years last year."

Awful is almost too kind a word to describe the wreckage of last season, which cost GM Neil Smith and coach John Muckler their jobs. Both men were instrumental in Graves' career. Smith drafted him in Detroit, then signed him as a restricted free agent for the Rangers in 1991. Muckler was Grave's coach when they won the Stanley Cup in Edmonton in 1990.

"Any time there are wholesale changes like we've had around here, it can't fall on just two people, " Graves said. "I think everybody who was here last year has to look in the mirror and hopefully use it as a wake-up call -- and learn from the experience. Hockey is like life, there are good times and bad." Again, Graves knows of what he speaks. As bad as last season was for the Rangers and their fans, it was worse for him off the ice. In January, he lost a son, when twin boys Jaxon and Logan were born 2? months premature. Only Logan survived. Not long afterward, Graves lost his father to cancer. "You go through different times in your life and you have to deal with certain situations and try to become stronger for it," he said. "That's when you depend on your family and friends. All my strength and perseverance starts with my family and goes from there. I'm playing a game I love to play with people I think of as family." And quite frequently, he'll add to that circle of friends and family, as he did with Tyler Bouck.

"Just being able to talk to him, not just about hockey but everyday stuff," Bouck said. "He's like my big brother."

"He's just a great kid," Graves said, "like a little brother to me." Clearly both are grateful for the relationship. And stronger because of it.