The Toronto Maple Leafs are getting ready to play the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first round of the playoffs. The best of five series presents a bit of a challenge for both teams coming off such a long lay off. It's going to take a battle for either team to get away with the series and of course like any playoff series part of it is the mental battle and Blue Jackets head coach John Tortorella is already trying some mind games. Tortorella has already been seen yelling at his players in a freak out this week during training camp and now he's bring out in the public. «We have to be really careful to not fall into the trap of thinking we can wade into this,» Tortorella said. «Each day is an important day. This isn't getting ready for the regular season and trying to find your game after 15 games in the regular season. This is a sprint.«Some guys have been dead-on right from the start. Other guys, not so much. We're in single digits now as far as getting ready to play this game. I don't want us to fall into the trap of wading into it. We have to be ready to go.»«My concern is that some of the people who are going to need to make a difference for us to win a series … I don't think … are ready right now. I don't think they're doing the things they need to do right now to get ready for that series.»The Blue Jackets dropped jaws last year when they swept the power house Tampa Bay Lightning in the opening round of the playoffs.
