Now I have nothing personally against Columbus, and I’m sure it’s a nice football city, but there is no way in hockey’s vast universe that this Ohio capital should be bumping the hockey capital of Canada from the Stanley Cup playoff map.

Here are 10 reasons why it’s a bad idea for Columbus to knock out Toronto and nail down a wildcard playoff spot.

1. Columbus is not the world class city that Toronto is. I don’t care that Columbus has a famous zoo and aquarium and I don’t care that Forbes last year gave it an A rating as one of the top cities for business in the United States. And I don’t care that Columbus was named the most intelligent city in the U.S. by the Intelligent Communities Forum. Toronto is world class in culture, sports, the arts and has the most famous mayor in the world.

2. You can have your Ohio State Buckeyes, whatever a Buckeye is. And what the heck is a Blue Jacket anyway? Yes, it was inspired by Ohio’s civil war history. Everyone knows what a Maple Leaf is. Legions of fans wear the Maple Leaf in every NHL city. How many Blue Jackets jerseys do you see at Maple Leafs games?

3. Another sore point. The team logo. It is a stylized version of the flag of Ohio. No comparison to the simple and dignified beauty of the Maple Leaf.

4. Now I know Carlton the Bear isn’t the most famous mascot in the NHL, but he’s got to be better than the Columbus mascot called Stinger who is a 6-foot-9 bright green bug that walks among the crowd.

5. There is no media to speak of in Columbus and the NHL loves cities with lots of media coverage. Columbus has only one daily newspaper, the Columbus Dispatch. When the Leafs play, there are dozens of reporters asking what Morgan Rielly eats for breakfast. You have all-day sports radio here making a study of the minutes of ice time awarded to Troy Bodie and not to Nazem Kadri. I’m sorry, Columbus is not a playoff-worthy media market.

6. The Blue Jackets were founded in 2000. Cliff Fletcher has socks older than that. Heck, the Leafs’ Jerry D’Amigo has a beard older than that. The Leafs have been playing in the NHL since the league was born. Can you say Original Six?

7. The most famous Maple Leafs of all time have names like Sawchuk, Bower, Keon, Mahovlich, Sittler and Sundin. The most famous Columbus Blue Jacket? Nothing personal, but Rick Nash? Around Toronto, bet you would get as many votes for Doug MacLean, the radio and TV personality who drafted Rick Nash.

8. Okay, we’re not going to get too nationalistic on you. But let’s just mention here that the Blue Jackets have 13 Canadians on the roster. The Leafs have 15, including Dave Bolland from Mimico and David Clarkson from Toronto. No Blue Jackets are from Toronto. Canadians love their hockey and Canadians love their Canadians who play hockey.

9. Hockey attendance. That matters. Columbus ranks near the bottom of the NHL in attendance. The Leafs are a virtual sellout every game with almost 20,000 fans getting in and thousands more trying to get in. In Columbus, attendance has been on a steady decline since the team’s inception. In the last few seasons, they haven’t been able to get more than 15,000 into the building.

10. None of the reporters in Columbus feel our pain. In their game reports, you’d be hard-pressed even to find a mention that Toronto is breathing down their necks in hopes of bumping them out of a playoff spot. How haughty of them. Here in Toronto, the reporters and talk show hosts make daily references to Columbus and Columbus is likely showing up in their nightmares too.