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MIKE MODANO'S PLAYOFF DIARY - APRIL 23 After hard-fought Game 1 win, it's time to refocus and relax 04/23/99 The first game against Edmonton was good for us. It was a real strong test, so that got us right into the series. It gave us the mind-set that this is going to be a real tough series, and we're going to have to play our best to beat them. If it was 3-1 or 4-1, I think we would have felt better about it. You hate to have those nail-biters at the end, where they're throwing everything at the net and pulling the goalie. We've had a lot of those games the past couple of years. It was a patient man's game. Both teams played great defensively, and both teams' penalty kill was very good. I think it was good that it was a tight game. We've always had good success in one-goal games. If it went the other way, we might have gotten soft emotionally. I think there was some hesitation and some tentativeness the first 10 minutes of the game. But as the game got going, we had some hits and some scoring chances that got us going. On Thursday, we had a meeting and an optional skate. We talked about some changes that we might make that we'll take on the ice Friday for the pre-game skate. We rehashed the game, talked about the opportunities we had, and talked about their goaltender a little more. He played really well. There were a couple of other issues we talked about. The main thing was how important one-on-one play is against these guys. Everybody's got a guy, and there's no switching through the neutral zone. Once they find our guy, they stick with him through the whole shift. So it's going to come down to beating your guy one-on-one, and if you do that, then you can get a clear path to the net. They make you work hard for your opportunity. Through the series, you're going to have a lot of changes from both teams as far as game plans and tweaking your game. Usually, the better team is the one that can make that change quicker and apply it to the game faster. On Friday, we'll just refresh our memory and get ready for the game, just focusing on minor details. I'll relax. I'll go to the driving range and hit some balls. Anything but stay at home and let my mind play tricks on me. It's important to do that. Golf's a great release for a lot of the guys. My dad's in town, so I'll go out and hit balls with him, do some putting and some chipping, make a game out of it. My dad got in Tuesday afternoon. He's a golf nut, so I barely see him. He knows more guys at the country club I belong to than I do. On game day, my routine doesn't vary too much. I'll go to the skate, go home and have some lunch, then get my rest before I go to the arena. Mike Modano's diary, as told to Staff Writer Bill Nichols, will appear in The News during the playoffs.