Walz recalls work ethic of Sakic, Forsberg and Modano

The Pioneer Press has an interesting read with former Minnesota Wild forward Wes Walz, who does Wild analysis for Fox Sports North these days.

Walz found his niche as a checking centerman under Jacques Lemaire and shared some of the tricks he picked up along the way.

"I learned that when you played a guy hard early, sometimes he'd go away -- at least in the regular season," Walz said. "Well, not 'go away,' but he wouldn't play quite as hard.

"I knew that when you're a scorer and you get that first goal, you're like, 'Hey, this could be a big point night for me.' All of a sudden your legs feel lighter. As a guy who used to score a lot, I understood that."

Some guys, naturally, were a tougher match-up because they always worked hard.

"Joe Sakic never went away," Walz said. "Peter Forsberg. Mike Modano never went away. There were certain guys you had to be on for 60 minutes. Those guys were tough to play against, and you didn't want to make it any easier for them."

Source: John Shipley, Pioneer Press