NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: AVALANCHE v RED WINGS

May 17, 2002

Brendan Shanahan

BRENDAN SHANAHAN: It was -- it was a nice experience, you know, I was -- it meant a lot and some of my teammates have done it before me and said that it's an exciting time, and it was nice.

BRENDAN SHANAHAN: I think he leads by example, and, you know, in a team like ours, even with all the veterans, he's still a guy that what he's done in his career he's had a great career but yet he still goes out and expects so much from himself and he doesn't preach to others about what you have to do. He just plays the game that he thinks we should all play and leads by example. That's the best kind of leadership there is.

BRENDAN SHANAHAN: We'll see as the series unfolds. It's unusual to get an entire week off during the playoffs when normally you're going every other day, so, you know, there are arguments to both sides which is more effective, to stay involved or to have some time off. And I've seen it -- I have been on teams where it's helped -- the time off has helped and I've been on team where the time off has hurt. We'll see how the series evolves.

BRENDAN SHANAHAN: Well, I'm still very proud to be Canadian, but I've lived here now and played hockey professionally in the states for 15 years. I spend most of my off season in the United States, married to a woman who is American, and we plan on having a family, and I want to be able to vote, I want to be able to have my say, and at the same time, I can still play for team Canada and be Canadian. That will never change that I was born in Canada, but again like I said when you start thinking about starting a family, you want to make sure that under no circumstances you can be deported.

BRENDAN SHANAHAN: Yeah, everybody is careful what they say in the playoffs. But the motivation to win, you know, someone's not going to say something where we're going to say now we really want to win. I think both teams know what's at stake and the importance of this next series.

BRENDAN SHANAHAN: Prior to the Olympics? Well, I mean, Adam is a great player, great competitor. He and I have battled many, many times and there is a mutual respect. And I think having played on his team a couple times, twice in the Olympics and once in the World Cup, I know what he brings to a game. He has a job to do and I have a job to do and usually we bump into each other trying to accomplish our goals.

BRENDAN SHANAHAN: I think it's just as intense. You know, I think that a lot of the -- some faces have changed, but, you know, a lot are the same. You think about guys like Sakic, Forsberg, and Roy and Adam Foote and they probably look down across the other side of the rink and see a lot of the same faces they have been battling for the last six or seven years as well.

BRENDAN SHANAHAN: I don't know if that's the right word to use. There are different moments in a series when it heats up, but that's kind of a word that the media will want to use and people will want to promote the game and sell the game sometimes want to use that word. I don't think as players you concern yourselves with that. I think there is a tremendous desire to win, and, you know, the rivalry can really heat up, but that word to hate somebody, it's a little bit juvenile.