Mike Modano Press Conference Transcript--May 7, 2008

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Mike Modano Press Conference Transcript--May 7, 2008
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MIKE MODANO

Q. Mike, you've been in these postseason battles with Detroit before. What does it mean for you to come back and face the team you grew up watching?
MIKE MODANO: You're always excited. But it's still a fun place to play in. Certainly at playoff time, so. It does bring back some fond memories of playing here, and in Dallas and Minnesota, for that matter An interview with:
, playing against these guys. A lot of great series, and a lot of great players.

Q. Marty and his puck handling skills, what extra dimension does that give you guys in your break?up of that team?
MIKE MODANO: He really does neutralize a lot of teams froms fore?checking. He's almost an extra guy back there to move the puck. And we're able to fan out and get open for him. You know, he's got great patience with it, too. He doesn't just get it and throw it somewhere. He puts it in there anywhere.
The defensemen can handle it and move it. It causes a lot of problems for other teams. But certainly he does pass better than some of the guys in the league.

Q. Is he playing the most confidence maybe you've seen him play with in a while?
MIKE MODANO: He's at a really high level right now. And, unfortunately, he needs to be for us to be successful. For anyone to be successful in the playoffs, the goalie has to be your best guy. I think he's accepted the challenge over the last few years to kind of erase the critics of him. And certainly he did so last series and the one before that with Giguere. So I think it's going to be tough with Osgood, but he's a great player.

Q. On Brenden Morrow
MIKE MODANO: I think it's become a situation where he's become more comfortable with his personality and what kind of player he is, and what he brings to the team because he's evolving into the player we all thought he would be when they drafted him and he's becoming that guy.
He's part of a younger nucleus that's going to be here for an awful long time and years to come. So, but, yeah, we spent a lot of time in off?season together. I golfed with him. It hasn't affected our relations at all. In our opinion it was just a different letter, so.
But he certainly has taken the reins and played with a guy who just really wants to win and will do anything for the team.

Q. Did you get a look at the tape of the last Red Wings game against Colorado, and what was your reaction when you saw it?
MIKE MODANO: We watched a little bit of it. Obviously, Colorado ran into some injury problems and missing their key guys. So it was really tough to get a beat on what, really, Colorado wanted to do in the last couple of games. It was really, obviously, quite tough for them.
But Detroit's on a roll. They're really playing well, the whole group of them. So they have a lot of dimensions to their game, and a lot of talented guys that are world class athletes and players that can cause anybody problems