from Scott Burnside of ESPN,
Modano went from being a player looking for space to one willing to fight for that space, Hitchcock said.
"I saw that evolution," he said.
It was not an easy transformation. Modano recalled having the conversations with Hitchcock and his coaching staff -- including defensive genius Doug Jarvis, Rick Wilson and perhaps the greatest defensive player of all time in Bob Gainey, who at the time was the Stars' GM.
Maybe "conversation" isn't the right term. Maybe "browbeating sessions" would be more accurate. What they were saying to Modano seemed counterintuitive to how he'd played his whole career, his whole raison d'etre, if you will.
"Bob and I talked about this until we were blue in the face," Modano said. "He would say, 'Mike, you can't play the way you're playing and expect to win and be consistent and be what we want you to be,' I really was unsure of what he was saying."
Finally, though, it wasn't so much of an epiphany as a beatdown that led to Modano's buying in.
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