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TSN Toronto Maple Leafs Reporter

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The NHL joined a troubling trend in sports leagues and organizations around the world last week, announcing that 11 of the 200-plus players participating in Phase 2 of its Return to Play protocol tested positive for COVID-19.

That uptick in infections has raised some doubts about the viability of the NHL’s plan to restart its shuttered season with a postseason tournament this summer. But Maple Leafs forward Jason Spezza sees one big reason to keep pushing forward amid the pandemic, even if it will require being isolated from his wife and four daughters.

"Daddy's got a dream, and that's trying to win a Stanley Cup, and there's not too many more years left," Spezza said of explaining a future absence to his kids during a media conference call Tuesday. "It's going to be a big adjustment, there'll be some tears involved I'm sure along the way, but they understand that [dream].”

As a 17-year veteran of the league still chasing that elusive title, Spezza has taken an active role is ongoing discussions between the NHL and the NHLPA throughout the restart process. So it was no great shock to him when some players came down with the virus in Phase 2, where small group workouts have been allowed since June 8.

“I think for us players, we realized there's going to be some risk of a positive test, especially in the phases that we're in right now,” Spezza said. “Phase 2 was used to see how things went. It's going to give us a little bit of a preview of things we have to avoid, and it probably becomes a little bit of a reality check for making sure that everybody's doing everything possible hygiene-wise to make sure that we're not spreading it. It's probably good there's been some positive tests [now] because it gives us some practice on how to deal with it.”

Players returning positive tests didn't stop the NHL from expanding the parameters of Phase 2 this week, allowing the size of on-ice groups to grow from six players to 12.

But from there, all that’s been decided about what's next is that prospective Phase 3 training camps will begin on July 10, and then the 24 teams involved in the proposed postseason setup will be assigned to one of two hub cities.

TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun reported Tuesday that the NHL has whittled its list of prospective spots down to six – Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Chicago.

An announcement of the final hub city selections is expected in the coming days, and Spezza believes getting to that point of isolating in one place will be key to the NHL’s successful reboot.

“I'm pretty confident that once we get into hub cities, we'll be able to do a good job of keeping [the virus] out,” he said. “And I think the biggest challenge will be getting to that point, because we're all not in a bubble scenario right now. My confidence towards heading to a bubble scenario is pretty high once we get there. I think it's just a matter of making sure that we get there safe. And really, 11 positive tests out of [some] 200 guys, it seems like a lot because it [was revealed] in a couple days, but in the grand scheme of things, I think we're doing pretty well as a league.”

Still, not everyone is as bullish as Spezza that the NHL can pull this all off safely. Once news of the positive cases came out, media reports about unhappy players began leaking out, with one anonymous source telling The Athletic, “In my opinion, no way we play.”

Spezza said it’s not surprising there are some reservations about returning to work at this time, but doesn't see those fears in the majority of players.

“Like anything, you're always going to have differences of opinion,” Spezza said. “I know you read the reports that there's guys that don't want to play, but you'd like to think that that's a minority. I’m pretty optimistic about things right now, to be honest. I gather that most guys are excited to play. I think there are concerns - everybody wants to make sure that health is at the forefront of all this - but at the end of the day, I'd say the overarching group is pretty excited to play.”

Spezza added it’s important that players take responsibility for their own actions outside the rink, especially as more cities throughout North America are relaxing their emergency orders.

“As everything around us starts opening up, we almost have to tighten up because we're going back to play,” Spezza said. “That's going to be an adjustment for us because it seems like things, at least here in Toronto, are slowly going to be opening up and we have to probably be a little more careful as we get close to training camp.”

If the NHL does make it to Phase 3 and eventually Phase 4, the Leafs will have a date with the Columbus Blue Jackets in a best-of-five qualifying-round series that would punch their ticket to the official 16-team postseason field.

In preparation, Spezza has been a regular participant in Phase 2, working out with Kyle Clifford, Kasperi Kapanen and Calle Rosen. While the Leafs can expand their groups, Spezza said they’re holding off on that until later in the week (“we don’t want to rush it”) and are keeping their sessions less focused on an opponent than on their own individual improvements for whatever lies ahead.

“It's conditioning and sharpening up,” he said. “It's a lot of just getting ourselves up to speed. The coaching staff will get into Columbus once we get rolling together as a [full team], or maybe even now as the groups get bigger, but I would think more so [preparation will come] in the training camp period. I think we're going to have enough time in camp to go over Columbus and I don't think you want to beat it up too much this far in advance.”