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MIKE MODANO'S PLAYOFF DIARY - MAY 6 After long rest, it's time to crank it up quickly 05/06/99 It was fun to watch the St. Louis-Phoenix game, but it was a little nerve-racking finding out who we were going to play. We match up pretty well with the Blues. We talked about our track record against St. Louis, which isn't great. But Phoenix was starting to lose guys left and right, so it was kind of 50-50 in the dressing room Wednesday morning about who we wanted to play. We've been off, so it will be key for us to have a great first 10 minutes. We need to get everybody really involved to get that emotion back up, along with that energy that has probably tailed off the past nine days. We need to get that excitement going, get the crowd going, get the players rolling, and get things back to the way it was in Game 3 and Game 4 in Edmonton. If we get that high intensity, and not get behind quickly, then we'll be OK. The Blues are a hard-working team. Their defensemen move the puck well. If we start running side to side, they can pick us apart. And they pass the puck well. They send a lot of guys in odd-number situations on our defense, and they have some talented players to make the plays. In the past, they caught us out of position sometimes. We need to be more disciplined positionally. They're running on a pretty big high. Some of that emotion might carry over to our series, so hopefully, we can slow them down and take a little bit of wind out of their sails from Game 7 in Phoenix. But it can work both ways. They're going to be a little more sharp mentally because they've been focused on playing every other day and we've been having nine days off. That's why it's so important for us to get off to a good start by getting everybody involved and get our passing game going. St. Louis' power play is devastating. If you give them five or six opportunities a game, you could be hurting. With Al MacInnis, you have to stay a little tighter in the offensive zone, between him and the blue line. He's very good at shaking off checks and getting loose and getting that shot off. He gets it off very quick, and he's very smart with where he puts it. He can shoot short-side around the defenders, or around the goalie. That's the key on the power play. If you let him wind up four or five times on a two-minute power play, he'll hurt you. The key is just to stay on him a little more, give him a little more attention. The break helped us get some guys healthy. We really needed it. But now it's time to get refocused on another hard series. Mike Modano's diary, as told to Staff Writer Bill Nichols, will appear in The News during the playoffs.