Toronto Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan attends a news conference in Toronto on April 14, 2014.The Canadian Press
I'll be watching you.
That was the gist of Brendan Shanahan's message at a hastily called press conference on Friday afternoon, as he explained the remaining 41 games of the season will be used by management primarily to evaluate the Toronto Maple Leafs top players.
After firing coach Randy Carlyle on Monday, Shanahan said it's the roster that is now in his crosshairs.
"There's that moment when the coach goes and you know the spotlight's going to be shined on you," he said of the team. "There's new opportunities for players.
"As much as we've been assessing guys throughout the season, it's another opportunity for us to see guys under a different coach and see how they respond and react.
"We're going to learn a lot more."
The Leafs president addressed players in the dressing room on the morning of their game against the Columbus Blue Jackets, a rare move for such a high ranking member of management.
Shanahan also confirmed Friday that new interim head coach Peter Horachek would remain in place for the remainder of the season.
One advantage to the current coaching configuration will be the addition of Steve Staios as an assistant. The long-time former player had been working in a player development role and gives Shanahan another direct line to what's happening behind the bench.
"There's a lot more pressure on them," Shanahan said of his players. "They know it. They know as individuals some of them have to be better. As a team they have to be better.
"It's going to be a big challenge. And we're going to learn a lot of things about our core in the coming weeks."
Overall, Shanahan wasn't revealing a lot, which has been customary in his few media appearances to date. He said management had a good idea of what the Leafs roster needed to make the next step but wouldn't define it as a rebuild – or anything else for that matter.
Aside from some added depth pieces, the Leafs core is identical to when Shanahan arrived in April in the newly created position.
That doesn't appear that it will be the case for long.
"We're not satisfied," Shanahan said.
"We talk about this stuff all the time. We have plans for this club. We've seen a lot of things so far, and we're going to see more in the coming weeks. We know those decisions are coming up. We're on it. We're prepared.
"We're not going to be afraid when that time comes, if we have an opportunity to make our team better. Whether that's a small move or a big move."