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NHL.COM'S Q & A WITH MIKE MODANO For this week's Q&A, NHL.com sat down with Mike Modano of the Dallas Stars. In 33 games this season, the 28-year-old center has 11 goals and a team-high 34 points. Here's what the Livonia, Mich., native had to say... Q - What has Brett Hull brought to your team - both on the ice and in the dressing room? I think the most important thing is just adding another threat out there on the ice - another guy that other teams have to worry about. He takes the heat off a lot of guys and just kind of goes out there and plays a real solid game. I think he understands his role. He is not expected to come in and score 40-50 goals a year. I think he really understands that he has got to play well defensively and that our line, as a whole, has to do that together. We are in a position where we check other teams' top lines when we are at home and usually play against them on the road as well. We have got responsibilities in both ends of the ice, but he adds a different flare to the team. He is really outspoken, as probably everyone knows, but he speaks his mind when he has to. Q – What is it about Ken Hitchcock's system or motivation ability that brings out the best of the Stars? I think a lot has to do with the personnel that he has to coach. I think we have many players with a lot of ability - a lot of skill and talent with a lot of speed. So I think he wraps up that all in his system, and we are able to go out every night and play at a high level of intensity. He expects us to work hard in practice and in games, and to put everything toward defensive thinking. I think we have always thrived on checking first, then feeding off other team's mistakes and turnovers. We have been able to capitalize on that. Ken is fortunate. I think he came in at a great position in terms of our team. It was a time where we were changing our philosophy, and changing a lot of personnel - from owners to players - so I think everything has kind have happened at the right time. Q – What has beating the Red Wings three straight times done for the confidence of your team? I think that, first of all, it is just understanding that we can win at Joe Louis [Arena]. That has really been something that has weighed on our shoulders the last two or three years - not being able to win in that city. It has been a tough building to play in. We have always gotten off to bad starts in that rink. We would be down two or three goals in the first period. So we just try to go in there with a thought of trying to be tied or better after the first to give ourselves a chance to win in the last 40 or 20 minutes of the game. We get up for those games. It is a real measuring stick for our team and for every team in the League to say how well they play against Detroit. It has been a real confidence builder for our team. Q - Having seen them three times, are they the same team this year? I don't know. It is tough to say. They have gone through a process where - I think our situation with our team is the same they were in maybe four or five years ago - they lost the first round to San Jose, got into a couple of Conference Finals and got swept in the Finals by New Jersey. So, we are in the same position as they were. Then you break that kind of omen and you win a couple in a row and it must be tough to get up for games after you have gone back-to-back. You try to go through it. You try to be there throughout the season and, hopefully, when the playoffs come around, you are right there and able to pick it up a gear. But to try to keep that drive going game in and game out would be something that would weigh on the guys. Q - In the NHL now, it seems like your team, the Red Wings, the Rangers and the Flyers are getting into a spot where they are sort of the "have" teams, and there are some other teams with owners who aren't as committed and are the "have nots." Because of this, are you concerned that there is going to be a lack of competitive balance in the League over the next couple of years? I don't know. It is a good question. Maybe four, five or six years ago we were in the same kind of boat. We had Norm Green, who was a great guy and great owner, but really didn't have the funds to be aggressive in the free agent market. That is what kind of stepped up St. Louis, Detroit and the Rangers. But, then again, you look at Ottawa, whose payroll is $17 million this year, and they were at the top in the Eastern Conference. I think it says a lot about their draft. I think they have a young core of guys with Alexei Yashin and Radek Bonk, and a lot of good players on defense, and they play a system that is hard working. Phoenix is not as high as everybody thinks they are in terms of payroll. I think it is just a matter of their system and everybody applying themselves toward the team and what it takes to win. Some teams get caught up in just trying to win games on pure talent. Nowadays, teams in the League are too competitive. The goaltenders are better athletes and better conditioned for the League. But, again, I don't think we would be in the position we are without Tom Hicks as our owner. Q – A lot of people say that because hockey is more of a team sport that a couple of players can't dominate - like a Kevin Brown, who can sign for $100 million and win 20 games. Do you think that is true? And, if so, do you think that means that this competitive balance thing won't hit the sport as badly as it has in baseball? I would think so. In hockey you've got five guys out there together at once, and anything can happen. You get some bad bounces or some good luck and the puck can end up in your net or in their net. That is really what sets our game apart. In baseball, you have a one-on-one match of hitter against pitcher and, really, everything else kind of falls into place behind the pitcher. Basketball is a lot of one-on-one and you have certain individuals who are going to get their points every game. But, in hockey, you get road and home matchups, and have certain individuals who you want against the other teams' top players. That is really what sets us apart from the other sports. Q - Do you worry that expansion or teams changing cities has watered down rivalries at all? I don't think so. I think that you might have gained some more rivalries. With the three teams in California and a couple in Florida, expansion has kind of added a little more zest to teams who are down south and can now get a little closer to other teams. We almost had a team in Houston, which would have probably added a great rivalry in Texas. It really depends. Rivalries really start if you face each other as you go on in the playoffs. I mean, with Colorado and Detroit, you haven't had that in a long time because they played each other three times in a row for in the Conference Finals. It really starts in the playoffs. But who knows. Down the road, Phoenix and Dallas might be a good rivalry. But expansion might just add some more. You might have Columbus and Minneapolis going at it some years down the road. Q - Do you think it has hurt the older established rivalries? I don't think so. I think that Toronto and Detroit, and Boston and Montreal are always great teams and great games. I think it goes back a long way and is still going on in today's game. So it is tough, especially if the talent gets watered down a little bit with expansion. But I don't think anybody expected Nashville to do as well as they are today, or Florida a couple of years ago when they got to the Finals. But again, it goes back to the system and everybody understanding their roles. The sooner those expansion teams develop, the better the rivalries you are going to have. Q – Earlier, you were talking about how the Red Wings went through a similar experience to what you are going through now and fighting their way to be number one. Do you feel that you guys have progressed another step this year? Do you think you are ready to be number one overall or is that something that is not going to be known until the spring? You don't know. New Jersey is playing great. Buffalo is playing good as well. I think it is really going to come down to the last month of the season. Whoever can keep up this pace and keep playing at this level will have a hand at the Presidents' Trophy. But it is going to be nip and tuck throughout. Injuries will play a part in that - who can fight through it and win games when key guys are out of the lineup. Q – Has the Coyotes' good start motivated you guys because you know that if you don't keep winning, you may not finish as the top seed in the division? That has kind of driven us a little bit to finish number one in our Conference and to let Phoenix grind it out with some other teams before we get to them. The first round has always been the toughest. You get those seventh and eighth seeds in there and they just put everything they have on the ice and, who knows, you run into a hot goaltender like we did with Edmonton a couple of years ago, you can have some major upsets. That is what everybody guards against. You kind of play conservative, but, in the mean time, the seventh and eighth seeds are just kind of giving it everything they have every shift and every play of the game. As the series unfolds, hopefully their goaltender keeps them involved in it and gives them a chance to win. But, we want to keep up with Phoenix. We want to keep ahead of them to give ourselves a little breathing room. And, the streak we are on right now, we want to keep that going as long as we can and really give us some cushioning with those guys. Q - You don't really have a natural left wing and have a lot of right wings playing the left side. Do you anticipate that, before the playoffs, you will find a left wing who actually plays left wing? I don't know. That is tough. I know that Jere Lehtinen has had a tough time. It is tough when you are playing right wing for a long time and then are switched to left. They tried Brett Hull on the left at the start of the season and he had some problems, so he moved back to the right side and just finds his click there. Jere is having a little tough time. We have Jamie Langenbrunner as a right wing on the left side and we lost Greg Adams, who was a real left winger. I think that is something that might be talked about before the deadline. Q – Do you think that the League has changed and grown its marketing structure over the last ten years to be sort of more major league in status? I think that with two or three more teams coming in over the next three or four years, every time the TV contract is up, that jumps up a little bit more. What really attracts people is the playoffs. It is an exciting time. You have got two months of playoffs and have games every other night. That is what makes it exciting for the fans. Things have come a long way. Salaries have tripled and quadrupled since 1992 and, really, the lockout was a big part of it. That really kind of catapulted our sport. The payroll has jumped up. Key players were getting moved around. There were offer sheets thrown out to a lot of great players in the League and teams were matching them. That brought a lot more attention to the sport. Obviously, with basketball out this year, that might of changed some fans over from basketball to hockey this year and maybe get them hooked on hockey a little more than basketball. If that sport doesn't start up this year, I think that once football is done, we are really going to maybe take off during the last two or three months of the year. Q - Should the NHL return to the Olympics? I would give it one more shot. I think being in Salt Lake City, this is really a no-brainer situation for the NHL. It was tough for Japan because it took forever to get there and once we got there, guys were a little tired, and then a couple days later you are playing games. And, right after, you are coming back home and going right back to the NHL. Plus, with the time change, it really wasn't that accessible for people to watch on TV. There really wasn't attraction for people. But being here in the States, I think it would be wise to give it one more chance and see how it does in the U.S. Q - Would you play? Yeah, I would. It would be exciting to play for your country at home and see how that pans out on TV. Q - Do you think that, with the expansion, there is the need for a Wayne Gretzky-type name to be emerging and coming in to the League? Do you think that person is already in the League? That is tough. Every year, everybody predicts that there are players being drafted who are "the next Lemieux" or "the next Gretzky." People have said that ever since those guys broke into the NHL. There were a lot of predictions. Nobody has really panned out. I think Eric Lindros is probably the next guy who is going to carry the torch for a while after Gretzky is gone. But for one guy to really catapult an expansion team, that is tough. I think that is kind of a honeymoon situation. The first two, three or four years, the fans really enjoy the new team and want to have fun. They enjoy something different, rather than watching baseball, basketball or football, and it turns into a kind of a party crowd. We had that in Dallas the first two or three years. We could do no wrong. You could lose four or five in a row and they would still think we are great guys and have fun. Now, if we lose one or two, people start questioning this guy and that guy. That comes with winning. I think winning really kind of sets the tone for attendance and for building a traditional organization.