1997-98 Dallas Stars Mike Modano Jersey

On this date in 2002, Mike Modano became only the 5th US born player to reach 1,000 points for his career in the NHL.

Point #1,000 came in the first period against the Colorado Avalanche, as Modano passed the puck to Ulf Dahlen behind the Avalanche goal. Dahlen then skated out from behind the net and flipped a blind backhander past Patrick Roy, making Modano the 64th player to reach 1,000 points in a career with his assist on the goal.

The Stars commemorated the milestone with a video tribute to Modano, which drew a standing ovation, which drew a wave of acknowledgment from Modano.

"It really hit home," Modano said. "It was very emotional. You think about all the players that I have played with and the players that have made and impact. When I went to the bench, those guys were on my mind."

The assist was the 576th of his career and allowed Modano to follow Joe Mullen, Pat LaFontaine, Jeremy Roenick and Phil Housely as the only Americans to reach the 1,000 point mark.

During the same game, Colorado goaltender Patrick Roy set the all time record for Most Career Minutes Played, passing Terry Sawchuk, who held the mark with 57,194.

Today's featured jersey is a CCM 1997-98 Dallas Stars Mike Modano jersey which features the American Flag patch as worn during the 1998 NHL All-Star Game Super Skills Competition on January 17.

This was the first year of the "World vs. North America" format for the All-Star Game to promote the appearance of NHL players at the upcoming Olympic Games in Nagano, Japan.

This would be the one and only time that the players would wear the flag of their home country on their NHL club's jerseys. While the World vs. North America format would remain in effect through 2002, the flag patches would not be used on the individual team jerseys during the Skills Competition again.

This style of jersey was first introduced in 1991 while the team was still located in Minnesota as the North Stars. At first it had green numbers with black trim and a white outline and, after a false start, basic white one color names.

After the team relocated to Dallas for the start of the 1993-94 season secondary logos in the shape of Texas were added to the shoulders.

1995-96 would see an updating of the entire jersey package as the word "Dallas" was added along the top of the main crest, the waist and arm stripes grew noticeably in width as well as the specifications of the names and numbers changing to what you see below. The numbers became a much more visible white, but they were outlined only in green, as were the names on the back. Unfortunately, the dark green outlines disappear into the black background at any distance greater than four inches!

While the original green numbers might not have provided as much contrast as the new white ones, the overall look of the three color treatment of the green numbers was more pleasing and professional looking when compared to the "two color" white numbers outlined with the virtually invisible dark green which left the jerseys looking very generic in their black with, for all intents and purposes, "one color" white numbers.

The later arrival of the three color numbers used by the Stars on their new alternate jerseys in 1997, white numbers trimmed in black and outlined in gold (matching the main crest) would have been the ideal combination to have been used on the black jerseys for a more professional look that would have tied the whole package together better, as the gold from the main crest is all but absent on the back, seen only in the small logos on the hem of the game worn jerseys.

First up is a very well done highlight package tribute to Modano and features many different varieties of the Stars jerseys he has worn during his career.

Here is another look at his career which includes commentary from Modano as well as others.

Mike is a good sport in this video and "takes one for the team" to raise money for his foundation.

Modano becomes the leading American scorer in the history of the NHL in this next clip.

Ok, we've made it this far while not veering off the path, but one more before we are done today. The obligatory inclusion of Mrs. Modano, Willa Ford, who is quite proud of her husband's accomplishments.

We lied. One more with Willa. We are so predictable some days, but if you just read our Evolution and Critique of the Numbering Styles of the Dallas Stars Road Jerseys 1991-1998 you deserve something extra today.