Jason Spezza is the leader the Leafs need to get over the line

For all the playoff demons circling the Toronto Maple Leafs, 38-year-old NHL veteran Jason Spezza is the calmest guy on the ice and on the bench. His leadership has been essential in getting the Leafs to a series-deciding Game 7 against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Video Transcript

- This will be a huge, huge couple of hours for the leadership group on the team. John Tavares, we're doing what we asked of him. He's being a leader on the ice.

Jason Spezza, Jason Spezza, man, we don't deserve Jason Spezza. This guy, he could have signed anywhere else, and probably got signed to like 1.5, or maybe even 2. I don't know. Who knows? Free agency is dumb sometimes.

But he just keeps coming back on these league minimum deals. And he just continues to be such an important leader, just the conversations, talking to Tavares, arguing with the ref afterwards. But then after the call wasn't-- they weren't going to do anything about it, calming the bench down. You know what? They're not going to do anything about it. It's fine. Calm down. We're OK. We're good. We got this.

So I hope it's him. Tavares again, Rielly for sure, just everyone. This needs to be a moment where everyone just pulls together and just wins a hockey game. Just win a hockey game, that's all that needs to be done.