Several sports icons started the new week by celebrating the U.S. men’s hockey team’s Olympic gold medal win over Canada.
Dallas Stars legend Mike Modano, who represented the U.S. in his playing days, joined Sportsradio 96.7 FM/1310 The Ticket (KTCK-AM) to break down how he felt about the Olympic tournament. Modano recalled what it was like seeing Mike Eruzione and other 1980 standouts when the U.S. pulled off the “Miracle on Ice” in Lake Placid, New York.
“It’s been a long process in the making. You go back to when we were watching Eruzione as 10-year-olds in Lake Placid. I think the weird thing now is that you have, obviously, NHL players playing in the Olympics since ‘98, so you have these kids who want to emulate NHL players and all of a sudden you’re finding your favorite NHL player on the Olympic stage,” Modano said. “So there’s these kids wanting to grow up to be Jack Hughes, Quinn Hughes or the Tkachuk brothers.
“It’s been a slow build for the U.S. Even World Juniors, you go back-to-back World Junior Championships. The growth and the talent in these kids nowadays is unbelievable.”
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Modano suited up for the U.S. from 1988-2006. He helped the United States win the 1996 World Cup of Hockey. He also claimed a silver medal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.
Modano said the U.S. had taken encouraging steps in recent Olympics after the ‘02 Games.
“We ran into [Mario] Lemieux and all those guys in Salt Lake, so we took a little step back. Had a gold medal game chance in Vancouver and Sochi, so the baby steps were kind of in place there in 2010 to 2020, but now it’s full board,” Modano said. “I think we feel like we match up well against anybody.”
Listen to the rest of Modano’s radio appearance here.
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