You have to go a long way back in the memory bank to recall a better performance than Brenden Morrow has put in during these playoffs as the Dallas Stars hit the halfway mark in pursuit of the Stanley Cup.

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Dallas's Brenden Morrow celebrates series-clinching goal in fourth overtime of Game 6 against San Jose on Sunday.

Photograph by : Reuters

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You can talk about the Conn Smythe Trophy for Morrow and rightfully so if the Stars get past Detroit to make the final, but the effort this man has put forward so far in leading a team against the size and strength of both Anaheim and San Jose is the stuff of legends.

Not only does he give you everything he has, like he did in that deciding four overtime-period affair Sunday against the Sharks replete with 19 counted hits and no doubt many more which went unnoticed, it's what he does for the rest of the players on his team.

As his coach Dave Tippett puts it: "When you see a player play that hard, that determined whether he's finding a big hit, blocking a shot or going to the net, when he plays like that it's hard for guys to sit on the bench without thinking they'd better be adhering to that standard. He's our captain and our leader for a lot of good reasons."

Many questioned the decision by the Stars in the past to take the C away from Mike Modano, never a great idea. But this might be one case where it's worked and perhaps even applauded by Modano after Morrow's play so far in these playoffs. He has seven goals, including two overtime winners, four assists and 11 points in 12 games and those numbers only hint at what he's giving in terms of effort.

"We're only halfway there, but certainly at this point he's our leader on the ice and people don't realize he's the leader off with his ability to play physical, which is such an important catalyst to the other lines trying to match his intensity," his goalie Marty Turco said Tuesday. "To say it's contagious is an understatement. It's one thing to say things to try to inspire and encourage players, but to actually get out and do that by example is another.

"We know he's going to be there and he helps so many of our other guys follow suit."

For his part, Morrow is just trying to get his body back into somewhat decent shape for the ordeal ahead against the Red Wings where the Stars' plan will be to try to bounce the Wings, something they haven't really ever been able to do with any consistency.

Where the Sharks and Ducks welcomed the bumping and ended up being beaten at their own game, the Wings are far more elusive and will be a much more difficult opponent for Dallas.

"We're going to be trying to get in on the forecheck and get our licks in on [Nicklas] Lidstrom and [Brian] Rafalski their puck-movers," Morrow said. "Being physical is our approach and that will be our focus against this team.

"As far as that game Sunday went, I've never been through anything like that before. The body was a little drained yesterday. When you got into a chair it was a little tough getting up.

"Losing all those fluids was tough and there were certainly some aches and pains and it was gruelling, playing that many minutes, trying to play physical as much as we did. But it was certainly well worth it."

Morrow insists that Tippett has maintained his approach throughout this season despite the fact the general manager Doug Armstrong was gonged midseason in favour of the two-headed monster of Brett Hull and Les Jackson, which now runs things. But he also said the move was beneficial.

"Dave did a great job and he just went about his business and kept all things behind closed doors and didn't bring any of his concerns [about job security] into the locker room.

"We knew at the time there were going to be some changes because we weren't going well and then when the GM change happened, it was like a slap in the face and we've done some real good things since. That may have been a factor in our success."

It gets tougher from here, but Tippett certainly had the best line with respect to the challenge at hand after already disposing of the two teams thought to be the toughest in the conference in Anaheim and San Jose: "If we're going to go up the food chain we might as well eat the best."