Jim Reeves 
Turco has taken his duties, his team to a serious level
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Hockey, by its nature, is a game of scars. The speed, the flashing blades, the violent collisions, inevitably see to that.
That most of Marty Turco's scars are on the inside, instead of the outside, doesn't mean that they have been any less painful.
On the contrary, I would argue that Turco has bled more than most in his NHL career. His hemorrhages have simply been internal. That's the lot of an NHL goaltender.
It's no coincidence that the Dallas Stars have advanced this deep in the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time in five years with Turco playing at a higher level.
We can talk about how Mike Modano owns San Jose, or Brad Richards' four third-period points in Game 2 Sunday night, or even the dramatic return of defenseman Sergei Zubov, but make no mistake about it, the Stars are where they are, leading the Sharks 2-games-to-none in this best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal series, because Turco has been, hands down, the best player on the ice.
As the Stars and Sharks line up tonight for Game 3 at the AAC, there's not a single player on either team who doesn't know that.
This is the new and different Turco, the one we actually saw emerging during last year's seven-game, first-round loss to Vancouver, when the Stars won three times only because he pitched shutouts.
This Turco, the father of two young daughters, doesn't laugh as much as he did when he was 27 and coming off a modern-day NHL record-setting season after replacing Eddie Belfour and posting an amazing 1.76 goals-against average in his first full year between the Stars' posts.
Subsequent playoff failures, when the fickle finger of blame found itself, more often than not, wagging in Turco's direction changed his outlook, changed his approach, even changed his persona.
Like most of us, he simply didn't know then what he knows now.
"For me, the complete understanding of what I need to do for this hockey club has come to me," Turco said in San Jose, where the Sharks threw everything they had in his direction and it still wasn't enough. "I've always known that stopping the puck and moving it and giving these guys confidence is what I've wanted to do, but I'm just at a better place now.
"You always wish you'd known more things when you were younger, but there's nothing I would change now that got me to this point."
He understands and appreciates the first-round losses now as learning experiences, a process that he needed to go through and absorb to become the goaltender and person he is today.
"Experience is a huge thing for anybody, experiences you can draw on to keep you calm," Turco said. "My game has developed with a lot of confidence to trust my instincts and abilities, to remain in position and to remain patient and to be strong for the whole game.
"Every facet of being a professional athlete has been tremendously better. It's been a lot of hard work, a lot of sacrificing, but that's exactly what I wanted."
Stars' play-by-play TV and radio announcer Ralph Strangis has had a front seat for Turco's metamorphosis from cocky playoff failure to quiet, efficient brilliance.
"Losing humbles you. It slaps you in the face," Strangis said. "I imagine life had always been pretty easy for Marty Turco. He'd won at every level, played on two national [collegiate] championship teams.
"Then he had to wait behind Belfour, and I'm sure he thought he would step right in and [win Stanley Cups], too, and he didn't."
At least not yet. But this Turco, who owns a 1.99 goals against-average for the first eight games of the 2008 playoffs, has the talent, and now the maturity, to do exactly that.
"What you're seeing is the maturity of becoming a veteran goaltender, accepting his role on the team," coach Dave Tippett said. "His leadership has evolved and his leadership is essential for our team.
"That's his personality. The combination of recognizing that he's one of our best players, of doing the job, has a big impact on him being a leader. Those are all situations and processes you go through."
If that means he doesn't joke around quite as much as he once did, or that the smiles are fewer because of how seriously he takes his responsibility now, it's a small price to pay.
"It's not just me out there that's out there working and thinking," Turco said. "It's for my guys.
"It's about winning, and that's all that I want. It's always been about getting better in order to win and give these guys confidence."
Turco is so confident in his own ability now, he's almost surprised on those rare occasions when the puck winds up in the net behind him.
"There's not too many goals, and I mean probably less than you'd think, that I shouldn't have had," he insisted. "There's something inside me that thinks I actually should stop all of them.
"But you have to know that mistakes are going to happen, never mind just goals and bounces, whatever. My job is about kind of forgetting and moving on. I've played enough, in big games and in overtime, to know that it's all about the next play, the next save and that my teammates look at their goalie as a wall. It's something I cherish dearly."
He has been that mighty wall throughout these playoffs, the Stars' last and most formidable line of defense.
"To say that I trust myself, it's true," he said. "But it's been a long road.
"I'm not perfect. I'm not the best ever. But I think I can help this team win."
Five years after his first foray into the postseason, a wiser, stronger Turco is all about proving he can do just that.
Jim Reeves, 817-390-7760
