Rod Brind'Amour responds to viral moment between him and Paul Maurice after Eastern Conference Final

"Yeah [it was hard], but I understood his point of view," Brind'Amour said when asked about skipping the handshake line. "He explained it to me. I wasn't expecting it, but I understood what he said and why. It is the players. Of course it is. Those guys are the ones that are battling out there and we're just sitting back there. Not along for the ride though. We invested a ton into it. So I get his point. It is about the players."

"I guess my take on it now, sitting back on it and reflecting, we talk about gracious losing and I've had some pretty impactful memories and moments in that line as a coach going through it. Even in this playoff run with the Devils, I had four or five guys that were Hurricanes and I still think of them like that. So it meant something to me to go through there and shake their hand. For me, I'm not thinking about a TV moment. I get enough of that every time there's a penalty. So that's not in it for me."

Brind'Amour reiterated that he'll continue to walk through the handshake lineup, no matter Maurice's feelings on it.

"I think moving forward, I'll probably go back to it just because it's a sign of respect. That's the way I look at it. We're not out there on the ice battling, but we're right in there with these guys. So that's my take. I think you're entitled to whatever one you want. He won, so I kind of went, 'Okay, I'll follow your lead.' But I do think it's important, to me anyway, to show respect to the players."