Dallas Stars superstar center Mike Modano won a Stanley Cup in 1999. In this cover story from THN's May 11, 2001, edition, Modano's growth as a leader was put in the spotlight.
The Dallas Stars are one of the NHL’s top teams this season. And in this cover story from The Hockey News’ May 11, 2001, edition (Vol. 54, Issue 35), contributing writer Chuck Carlton wrote about Stars captain Mike Modano.
(This is our regular reminder: for access to The Hockey News’ Archive, visit THN.com/Free and subscribe to our magazine.)
By the time the story was published, Modano was coming off a Stanley Cup championship with the Stars in 1999. It took him 10 years to win it all, but slowly but surely, he raised his game to all-star and all-world levels.
“I think coming out of junior, you are touted as being very one-dimensional,” Modano said. “So it took time to kind of change that perception people had about me. We’re going on 12 to 13 years now, and a good four or five years of that was trying to change that opinion people had about my game. It took a while.”
Modano wound up playing 1,499 regular-season games and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2014. But he had to overcome plenty of letdowns and disappointment on the road to glory.
“In this day and age, he has become an elite player,” Stars’ defenseman Darryl Sydor said of Modano. “Mike has a tough role right now with guys on him all the time. The great players get away from it. At the end of the night, they get it done. We’ve seen Mike do it numerous times. There are a few guys who can change a game by themselves. When he’s skating and moving, he’s the best I’ve seen in a long time.”
MORE THAN JUST A PRETTY FACE
Vol. 54, No. 35, May 11, 2001
By Chuck Carlton
You see Mike Modano in the playoffs for the Dallas Stars and you think that somehow key details have been deleted from his biography, in a case of an NHL revisionist purge. He wasn’t an All-Star Game selection this season? He didn’t rank among the league’s scoring leaders? He probably won’t be a finalist for a major award, unless it’s the Conn Smythe as playoff MVP?
Maybe those omissions might have bothered Modano some other time. Even now he admits playing “what-if” games (“Lots of times,” he said), wondering what might have been had he played in October and November the way he finished the season or like he’s doing now. But those ruminations are on hold for the moment.
In a very personal way, Modano understands how important the playoffs are. While he might bemoan his regular season performance back in the first couple months, he wouldn’t trade any goals now for five back then, when he finished with 33 goals and 84 points.
Asked which would mean more, the regular season scoring title or leading in playoff points, the answer comes quickly.
“The playoffs,” Modano said. “It’s the main stage. People make names for themselves in the playoffs. If you’re going to establish yourself as a playoff player, that’s a great reputation to have.” No one doubts any more if Modano is in his proper element. He has put together consecutive 20-point playoff seasons, the first player to do so since Sergei Fedorov of the Detroit Red Wings did it four times, from 1995 through 1998. Only Peter Forsberg of the Colorado Avalanche has more points the past four post-seasons.
Modano has a knack for making things look so easy, whether it’s finding an extra gear in Game 1 against the Edmonton Oilers, or rocketing the puck past Tommy Salo for a power play marker in Game 3. He finished with three goals in the six games of that first round series and missed two game-winning goals by an inch when his shots struck the post.
“You can’t shut down guys like that,” said Edmonton defenseman Janne Niinimaa. “You recognize his strengths bringing the puck up the ice and go with him. You have to be aware of where he is every time he’s on the ice.”
Modano tested the endurance of Edmonton center Todd Marchant, one of the game’s best checkers. When Stars’ center Joe Nieuwendyk went down with a sprained knee in Game 2, Modano’s role ballooned-his average ice time against Edmonton (27:38) was about eight minutes more than the next Dallas forward. And though Modano took a puck to the nose in Game 5, he came back after impromptu restructuring of the schnozz and 35 stitches.
Instantly, Modano became the face of the Stanley Cup chase, instead of a coverboy for GQ.
“He understands the time of year more than anything,” said Stars’ coach Ken Hitchcock. “He’s needed and needed right now.”
To Hitchcock, Modano’s numbers are less significant than the big picture. The accomplishments need a context and the coach is happy to oblige. The game-by-game recitation is redundant, Hitchcock said, just illustrating the obvious.
“I don’t look at that stuff; I just look at wins,” Hitchcock said. “What he does is he has a tremendous winning record the last five years in the playoffs. That’s how I judge it.
“He’s a leader on our team. He’s a guy that does it every night in the playoffs to win hockey games. He does it in other areas (besides) scoring goals and getting points. Those are big points and they matter, but he does a lot more to help us win.
“At the end of the day, when you’re considered a strong playoff performer, I think that’s a major factor. He’s an elite player in the area of winning hockey games.”
The Stars have won 10 post-season rounds and 44 games since 1998. If they make another trip to the Stanley Cup final, they’ll be the first team to do it in three consecutive seasons since the 1983-85 Edmonton Oilers. For all the contributions of Nieuwendyk and goalie Ed Belfour and right winger Brett Hull and defenseman Derian Hatcher, Modano has been the one X-factor in the Stars’ success.
To call Modano a scorer overlooks his myriad contributions. Checking is just another area where he excels. What Modano has become is a difference-maker, someone whose wake cuts across conference divides.
Once he was the wide-eyed No. 1 overall pick. Then came the poster boy who made 50 goals seem easy. Next was the gritty gut-check guy of the 1999 Stanley Cup run. Now he’s Mike Modano, a living, breathing example of how the playoffs should be approached.
“I think coming out of junior, you are touted as being very one-dimensional,” Modano said. “So it took time to kind of change that perception people had about me. We’re going on 12-13 years now and a good four or five years of that was trying to change that opinion people had about my game. It took a while.”
People are noticing far beyond the small world of the Stars’ playoff series. A couple thousands miles away from Dallas, up in Ottawa, Senators’ coach Jacques Martin was trying to explain to underachieving star center Alexei Yashin how to cope with nagging defenses in the playoffs. The best find a way to do it, Martin said.
“Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Steve Yzerman and Mike Modano, they face that,” Martin said. “It’s part of being a top player. You’ve got to cherish it and excel.”
In one sentence, Martin invoked the name of The Great One and hockey’s most skilled offensive player of all-time and a two-time Stanley Cup champion who ranks in the top 10 in career goals and points. The company is interesting because Modano has patterned his game after Yzerman, a boyhood hero when he was growing up in Detroit.
“In this day and age, he has become an elite player,” said Stars’ defenseman Darryl Sydor. “Mike has a tough role right now with guys on him all the time. The great players get away from it. At the end of the night, they get it done. We’ve seen Mike do it numerous times.
“There are a few guys who can change a game by themselves. When he’s skating and moving, he’s the best I’ve seen in a long time.”
Even the playoff look comes easy. Modano’s hair is combed back. The facial hair is a happy medium between full playoff beard and forgot-my-razor stubble.
Just don’t be fooled by the looks, as the puck incident illustrated.
“I knew I couldn’t continue to play on the perimeter,” Modano said, sporting enough stitches to rival Frankenstein’s monster. “I knew I had to pay the price for my teammates. I had to get my face dirty.”
Or even a little bloody.
The Hockey News Archive is an exclusive collection of more than 2,640 issues and more than 156,000 articles exclusively produced for subscribers, chronicling the complete history of The Hockey News from 1947 until this day. Visit the archives at THN.com/archive and subscribe today at subscribe.thehockeynews.com