from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,
The author of the Shan-a-plan won’t allow himself a moment to stop and smell the playoff roses.
There is still too much work to be done, Brendan Shanahan said, in a lengthy interview. In his third season on the job as Maple Leafs president — the first year to assess, the second to strip down the roster and essentially tank, the third to remarkably qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs — Shanahan calls this rather stunning season as “just another positive step in the process.
“In the moment, like on Saturday night, it feels fantastic,” he said. “And then everyone involved, including the players, immediately switches to: ‘What’s next?’
“We’re like everybody else. We enjoyed that game and the nature of it. But five minutes after it’s over, it has to be: ‘What’s next?’”
What’s next begins Thursday night in Washington and a Stanley Cup playoff series against the best regular-season team in hockey. What’s next will be the first exposure many of his young Leafs have had to this new game called NHL playoff hockey.
Shanahan hopes the post-season run, however long it lasts, will give some perspective. He doesn’t just want to build a playoff team, as he already has. He wants to build a team capable of competing for the Stanley Cup every year.
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