FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.—William Nylander walked up from the beach and sat in a chair in the shaded patio outside the team hotel. Brandon Carlo was already there, feet up. Simon Benoit joined them within minutes.
It was just idle chit-chat among them, some phone time, while they waited — in no rush, really — to get on the bus that would take them to the airport for a flight back to Toronto, where the Maple Leafs will play the biggest game of their season on Sunday night: Game 7 against the Florida Panthers.
The winner moves on to the Eastern Conference final against the Carolina Hurricanes. The loser will feel like a season was wasted.
Auston Matthews scored the winner in the third period as the Maple Leafs shut out the Florida Panthers 2-0 to force Game 7 in their second-round playoff series. (May 17, 2025 / The Canadian Press)
“We stayed overnight here so we can at least relax for a while and rest,” said coach Craig Berube, on the one-year anniversary of his hire. “It’s just getting away from it for a bit here and relaxing, and then getting some rest. That’s really important, because we’re going to need the energy in Game 7. Rest is really crucial right now.”
If there was a template of the game that Craig Berube has been preaching, none fit it better than Game 6 against the Panthers in Florida on Friday
If there was a template of the game that Craig Berube has been preaching, none fit it better than Game 6 against the Panthers in Florida on Friday
More so perhaps for Matthew Knies. He took a big hit from Aaron Ekblad in the second period of Game 6 on Friday and played only sporadically after that. When Berube met the media on Saturday morning, he had yet to receive a medical update.
“I will today, though, at some point,” said Berube. “(I’ll learn) how we’ve got to proceed going forward here with him.”
Knies, the youngest Leaf at 22, is an important component on the top line and power play.
“He touches every part of the game,” said Berube. “He scored some big goals for us. He’s been a very good player in the playoffs here and throughout the season.”
The Leafs worked all year to get home-ice advantage — winning the Atlantic Division was an oft-stated goal — and the reward is sleeping in your own bed on the night before the game, having the backing of the home crowd, and last change among the on-ice tactics.
“It’s exciting,” said Leafs forward Scott Laughton. “We did our job here. We still have a job to do. It’s always fun. Game 7 at home in Toronto. It’s pretty electric, so it’s going to be exciting and we’ve got to be ready to go.
“Every shift, every puck battle are so important in these situations ... every play matters.”
The Leafs took care of business and forced Game 7 with a pitch-perfect 2-0 win on Friday night. It was the recipe Berube likes: keep the game close, then break it open in the third period. Goals by Auston Matthews and Max Pacioretty did just that.
Now the Leafs are giving off vibes that they are all calm, cool and collected. No one is on edge. No one is showing any signs that the pressure is getting to them. They’re exuding a quiet confidence, which is all anyone can ask between games.
If Game 5 against the Florida Panthers was lost thanks to paralysis by analysis, the Leafs suffered no such affliction in Game 6.
If Game 5 against the Florida Panthers was lost thanks to paralysis by analysis, the Leafs suffered no such affliction in Game 6.
The last time the Leafs made it to a conference final, they bowed out in five games to Carolina in 2002. The last time they won a Game 7, it was over the Ottawa Senators in the first round in 2004. They are 12-15 all-time in Game 7s, 7-3 on home ice.
While many Leafs have only experienced Game 7 disappointment, a few recent additions have the opposite experience. The last Game 7 Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Steven Lorentz played in won them the Stanley Cup in Florida.
“I’m trying to help the team out in any way I can,” said Ekman-Larsson. “I’m a positive guy. I’m trying to be positive and trying to keep the room light and cheer them on.”
Of course, their ex-teammates on the Panthers had that same success.
“Personally, I enjoy them,” said Panthers coach Paul Maurice. “As you get older, you enjoy the more unusual events of your life. I think you’re more aware of them. So Game 7 is cool.”
Maurice perhaps best summed up what separates Game 7s from the rest of the playoffs.
“You want to win in four,” he said. “You do, 100 per cent. But the Game 7s, you’ll remember.
“There’s not a lot of them. They’re more intense, but there’s a freedom in Game 7 that’s not anywhere else. On both teams you’ve got guys dealing with stuff, physical stuff. And they will say, ‘I just got to play one more game.’ Now if they get to play one more game after that, they’ll deal with that then. But in the moment in the warm-up, whatever they’re dealing with becomes far more mentally manageable. So everybody goes, and everybody goes hard. There’s a freedom to Game 7 that’s not like any other.”
The game is at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday at Scotiabank Arena. The final hours leading up to it might feel like an eternity.
“You wait around for it all day, which is a little bit painful,” said Berube, whose St. Louis Blues won the Stanley Cup in a Game 7 in 2019. “But once it gets going, it’s great. You’re in the moment. There’s a lot of emotion going on in the game, a lot of intensity. As the head coach, it’s important to stay calm and keep your players directed in the right way and staying calm, too.
“But it’s a lot of fun.”
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