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SPORTSCENTRE Reporter

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TSN Toronto reporter Mark Masters checks in daily with news and notes on the Maple Leafs, who practised at the Ford Performance Centre on Thursday before travelling to Columbus for Friday night's game against the Blue Jackets. 

The key pieces in a blockbuster off-season trade between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Colorado Avalanche, Nazem Kadri and Tyson Barrie got together for an hour during the summer to offer each other inside information. They talked about the teams and the cities and everything else. 

What was a notable piece of advice from Kadri? 

"He told me to get on the subway to go to the game," said a grinning Barrie, who has moved into Kadri's old place, "so I did and it took me like 10 minutes so I feel grateful for that, because it can get a bit snotty down there."

It turns out the 28-year-old defenceman is adept at avoiding traffic on and off the ice. His spin move around Ottawa Senators winger Drake Batherson just inside the offensive blueline in the Leafs’ season opener Wednesday night led to a goal by Ilya Mikheyev in the third period. 

"I was looking for a shot," Barrie recalled, "and I could kind of see that the forward was willing to block it, so I kind of gave it a fake and I think he bit a little bit so [I] tried to get out of there and once you're down in the zone you're just trying to find an open guy and Ilya did a good job."

"I was hoping he was coming to me," said a smiling John Tavares who was lurking in the slot. "I saw him make the move and I tried to get open. Just great poise and patience, obviously, tremendous ability to have that type of footwork, puck control and to be able to see the ice."

It's one thing to have the tools to make that type of play and quite another to have the swagger to go for it. 

"I mean, if he loses it, it could be a chance against," said Jake Muzzin, who has been partnered with Barrie since camp opened, "but he’s confident enough to pull it off. He's very calm with the puck at the point. I mean, you guys saw some moves last night, which not a lot of guys do."

Barrie's ability and self-belief is paired with a hockey IQ that is quite high. He knows when to take risks. 

"At the right times, everything is acceptable," said head coach Mike Babcock when asked about Barrie's twinkle-toes turn which helped extend the Leafs lead to 5-2. "To me, he has got real good defensive instincts. He knows what he is doing. There are some things he can clean up and we’ll work hard at cleaning those things up and that will allow him to have the puck more. He is a guy you’d like to have it on his tape because he can get it going in a hurry."

Barrie used one of his six shots on Craig Anderson to help set up Frederik Gauthier for Toronto's first goal of the season. Barrie jumped up in the rush on the play and held his ground on the right flank as rookie Dmytro Timashov filled in at the point. 

"I found myself coming down and then Timmy just called for it up top so I knew he was up there covering for me so that gives me a little leeway to stay down there," Barrie explained, "and then he sent it back and I didn’t really have much so I just fired it at the net and Goat did a great job battling in there."

So, Barrie's first two assists with the Leafs came on goals by an NHL rookie in Mikheyev and a fourth-line stalwart in Gauthier. The potential for what he can do with Toronto's top six is huge. 

"There's some serious high-end talent in Colorado and we've got the same here, but then I think there’s a couple more pieces to it," said Barrie, who racked up 45 assists last season while skating alongside the likes of Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog. "It's a lot of fun for a player like myself to be able to jump in the play and have these guys looking for you. It's been a lot of fun so far and it’s one game in."

It certainly helps when you have a guy like Muzzin serving as a sort of safety valve in case any rush up the ice goes sideways. 

"He's so poised," Barrie gushed, "and talks so much and he makes the game feel really easy for me and I always know he has my back whatever’s going on so that’s a great feeling to have."

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Barrie is actually a few years older than Morgan Rielly, 25, but feels like he will benefit from observing his fellow B.C. native up close all season.  

"He's awesome. From watching last year, he was my vote for the Norris (Trophy) and I think he didn’t get the all-star game either, which is tough when you play on a team like this, but he's an underrated player. And he’s such a fantastic guy and person and I can learn a lot from him and the way that he plays."

Rielly led all defencemen with 20 goals last season, but finished fifth in Norris voting. It was the first time he received any votes for the award. 

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Toronto's blueliners produced 30 shot attempts on Wednesday and Muzzin thinks that's a byproduct of some preseason work. 

"One of our focuses at camp was to create more five-on-five chances and more O-zone time," he revealed. "You look at the teams that were really successful in the playoffs and went all the way, they led the league in O-zone time with the puck."

Barrie produced 10 of the attempts against the Senators. 

"I don’t think we get an opportunity to shoot the puck as much as we do unless our forwards are doing a good job on the forecheck," he said, "and I think the way our forwards can back other teams off with speed and pull up and find (the) lane, it's such a big part of it to work together. They did a great job last night forechecking and getting pucks low to high and we were just firing them in there."

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With the Leafs playing four games in six nights to open the season, Babcock wanted to keep practice short on Thursday so the main session lasted only about 25 minutes with no special teams work. However, Jason Spezza was among a group of players, who stayed out late to do some penalty-kill drills with assistant coach Dave Hakstol. 

Spezza will make his Toronto debut tomorrow in Columbus. He was a healthy scratch for the home opener, because Babcock said the 36-year-old needed more time to get up to speed on the penalty kill. 

"We didn’t do a good enough job in training camp," Babcock admitted. "Our plan coming in was to penalty kill him all the time. In training camp, though, we wanted him on the power play all the time, too. We probably didn't do a good enough job of that so he wasn’t ready to kill on a regular basis. We played him in a game — the last game he played — and we didn’t have him up to speed. That’s not on him — that’s on us. We spent a lot of time over this last while where we haven’t put him on the power play at all and are just getting him dialed into that."

"It's just getting reps," Spezza said. "I've killed penalties in the past, it's just getting the details that they want here. At this time of year, it’s reps and getting reps in."

Does he feel comfortable with Toronto's system? 

"Yeah, definitely," Spezza said with a smile. "I definitely feel like I’m up to speed and looking forward to playing."

The Leafs killed all three Senators power plays last night while Spezza watched. It wasn't easy for him, but one of the reasons Spezza was brought to Toronto was to be a stable, calming presence in a young dressing room with only one Stanley Cup champion (Muzzin) on the roster. 

"As a veteran guy I have a big responsibility and how you act and how you handle situations, you’re always looked at," he said. "When I was a young guy, I looked at the older guys in the dressing room and it stuck with me and it meant a lot. As a guy who’s been able to play a long time you carry that burden and you want to make sure you’re a good example. 

"You want to play every night. You want to play at the start of the year for sure, but one thing I’ve learned in this league, whatever happens to you, whether you play a good game, bad game, you get sat, you really just have to look forward to the next day and the next day is the one you’re judged on. I didn’t play last night so I got to bed and got ready for today and you move forward. And I think that’s how you have success in this league for a long time is really being in the moment."

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After being named the 25th captain in franchise history, Tavares got a chance to spend some time with a couple of his predecessors following Wednesday's win as Wendel Clark and Darryl Sittler visited the dressing room. 

Tavares also received a text message from immediate predecessor Dion Phaneuf, who wore the 'C' in Toronto before being traded on Feb. 9, 2016. 

"I got to know him at the World Championships a few years ago and we actually spent some time together after that tournament in the summer so I know him pretty well and he sent a really, really nice message just saying how special it is to be a captain here and to play for this city," said Tavares. "It was really nice."

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Lines at Leafs practice: 

Forwards
Johnsson - Matthews - Nylander 
Kapanen - Tavares - Marner 
Mikheyev - Kerfoot - Moore
Gauthier - Spezza - Petan
Timashov - Shore - Hyman 

Defencemen
Muzzin - Barrie
Rielly - Ceci
Sandin - Holl
Dermott - Marincin 

Goaltenders
Andersen
Hutchinson