Jason Spezza likes the fact the Maple Leafs will meet the Columbus Blue Jackets in a qualifying round if the National Hockey League moves to Phase 4.
It’s not that Spezza figures the best-of-five series would be a walk in favour of the Leafs.
“It’s a good matchup because we won’t take them for granted,” Spezza said. “It’s a team we have a lot of respect for and with some of the studs they have on their back end (Seth Jones, Zach Werenski), (Columbus) poses a lot of problems.
“It’s a team that has hard work as part of their hallmark. Torts (coach John Tortorella) has a history of having teams that are very good defensively.”
Spezza said there hasn’t yet been much talk at the rink about facing the Blue Jackets.
“It’s (more about) conditioning and sharpening up,” Spezza said. “The coaching staff will get into Columbus once we get rolling together as a group or maybe as the groups get bigger (this week).
“We’re going to have enough time in camp to go over Columbus. I don’t think you want to (talk) it up too much this far in advance. Right now it’s about making sure we’re ready to go.”
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