On Monday night, Dominik Hasek, Peter Forsberg, Rob Blake and Mike Modano will enter the Hockey Hall Of Fame as the player class of 2014. Some thoughts from them, on the threshold of their induction, via Eric Duhatschek.

My greatest career moment came ...
Dominik Hasek:

“Winning the 1998 Olympic gold medal, this is something I will never forget. After we won, we flew a charter that our president (Vaclav) Havel sent for us. We spent one night in Prague. The cheering, the people’s ovation, at the airport and in the square, this is something we will appreciate for the rest of our lives. We were very focused as a team. After we beat the U.S. in the quarter-finals, we started to believe in our team, that maybe we can do something a little bit more.”

Mike Modano:

“The World Cup (in 1996) and the Stanley Cup (in 1999) is like 1 and 1A. With the Stanley Cup, you’re representing a city and an organization, what Dallas meant. The U.S., with the World Cup, we were painted into a corner. We didn’t know what to do. We’d lost the first game in Philly so we had to go to the (Montreal) Forum to win two against Gretzky, Messier, Sakic, Lindros. You look at the Canadian lineup, it was probably the best team they ever put together. To win two in a row against those guys, we were just beside ourselves – and (coach) Ron Wilson was the catalyst for that. This’ll be talked about for years, he said, kind of what Herb (Brooks) told the 1980 (Miracle on Ice) team.”

continued