from Dave Stubbs of NHL.com,

The post-series handshake line is one of the NHL's great traditions, a few gentlemanly moments following four, five, six or seven punishing Stanley Cup Playoff games.

In many ways, the handshake line is a contradiction: Players who have been bruising each other in every second of every game line up to shake hands and wish each other well. One team has advanced to the next round or has won the Stanley Cup; the other is vanquished into the offseason. The handshake tradition has endured, evolved, and today it is a compelling scene at the end of hard-fought playoff series.

It may seem like the perfect opportunity for the winning team to gloat, rub salt in the losing team's wound, but Maple Leafs legend Dave Keon, who won the Stanley Cup four times in his 18-season career, said that's not the case.

"You don't want to be, for want of a better expression, jumping up and down while you're doing it," said Keon, who played in 18 Stanley Cup Playoff series in his career, 17 with the Maple Leafs, the other with the Hartford Whalers. "Your opponent played hard, and you respect that. In my day, all you said, basically, was, 'Good game.' I think that sometimes, not even a word was spoken. You'd just nod. And you might not shake the other guy's hand, you'd just touch it.

read on