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“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.”

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.

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.”

So, for all the grim whispers around this team and the cacophony of social-media doomsaying online, Friday’s morning skate in nearby Fort Lauderdale was occasionally accompanied by a joyous whoop from one smiling Leaf or another. And Friday night’s 2-0 win saw the Leafs do what their coach suggested they do: shake the weight of the world off their slumped shoulders and play freely, as though the game is fun. Because winning certainly is.

“It is fun. It’s hockey. It’s competition. It’s what you dream of as a kid growing up, playing in games that matter,” Chris Tanev, the Leafs defenceman, said before the game. “So we need to embrace the moment, enjoy the moment and live in the moment.”

A game after Berube lamented how his team was guilty of “overthinking” as the Panthers clobbered the Leafs in a game that inspired boos at Scotiabank Arena, it was pc28����that caught the Panthers flat-footed more than once with the season on the line. This was a tight game, with not much separating the sides. But ultimately it was the Leafs preying on Florida mistakes that made the difference.

Auston Matthews scored the game’s opening goal on a feed from Mitch Marner after Florida’s Aaron Ekblad bobbled a breakout pass at the home team’s blue line with 13:40 remaining in the third period. It was Matthews’s first career goal in 11 second-round playoff games, and it came on his 24th shot of the series. But it couldn’t have come at a better time.

“I’ve had some good opportunities all series,” Matthews said. “I’m just going to continue to shoot and believe the next one’s going in.”

After Max Pacioretty beat Florida defenceman Nate Schmidt in a sprint to the net front and scored on a cross-ice pass from Bobby McMann to make it 2-0, a team that looked dispirited in Game 5 was on the way to being rejuvenated by victory in Game 6. Joseph Woll’s 22-save shutout, the first of his playoff career, sealed the deal.

The Leafs are now 7-8 when facing elimination in the Shanaplan era. That they’re 0-5 in Game 7s��— hey, at least they’ve got another chance to prove themselves in Sunday’s winner-take-all contest at Scotiabank Arena.

What can the Leafs expect?

“It’s fun,” said the 36-year-old Pacioretty, who has played in four Game 7s and been on the winning side of three. “I can’t wait. We’re going to war.”

The Panthers, as defending Stanley Cup champions, will no doubt be installed as favourites. But it’s not as though Florida hasn’t shown vulnerabilities. As Panthers coach Paul Maurice said in the lead-up to Friday’s game, Florida hasn’t exactly figured out how to plug the holes that have allowed the Leafs to find good scoring chances on Sergei Bobrovsky. And for all the outcry about Toronto’s flat performance in Game 5, Maurice pointed out that, according to Florida’s analytics, it was far closer than the lopsided score suggested.

“They’re in alone on us a bunch of times,” Maurice said. “I don’t think we’re getting rid of all of (Toronto’s chances), but that’s why Sergei is what he is to us. That’s how important he is. To completely prevent it, we would have to completely change how we play, and we’re a little far down the road for that now.”

The Leafs have often played well in moments when large swaths of their fan base have written them off, and Friday’s game was no different. pc28����supplied a sharp opening period, outshooting the Panthers 7-2 thanks to a defensive approach that kept the opponent to the outside and prioritized cutting off shooting lanes. The tireless Tanev blocked more shots in the first period (four) than Woll was required to stop (two). The Leafs blocked a series-high 31 shots all told, and managed the puck to near perfection.

“We played a simple game tonight, and we were determined,” Berube said. “That stands out to me more than anything��— determination.”

Florida tilted the ice in the second period, when referees somehow missed the moment Florida captain Aleksander Barkov inserted his stick underneath Matthews’s visor��— a clip that required Matthews to make a momentary trip down the tunnel for treatment. So it was understandable that Matthews was irate when he was called for high-sticking Ekblad in the midst of a second-period pc28����power play. For all that, the game was scoreless heading into the second intermission. Patience was required, and the Leafs showed plenty. If Game 5 was lost thanks to Toronto’s paralysis by analysis, the Leafs suffered no such affliction in Game 6. That’s a step in the correct direction en route to a chance at Game 7 redemption.

Berube, who’s 2-1 in Game 7s as a head coach with a win that includes the Stanley Cup clincher with St. Louis in 2019, was asked what’s in store on Sunday.

“They’re fun,” Berube said, speaking of Game 7s. “I don’t know how players think nowadays, but when I was growing up, and all the people that I knew growing up, they always dreamed of playing in a Game 7 … Everything’s on the line. We gotta come out in Game 7 and do the same things we did (in Game 6). It’s not fancy. It’s just competing. It’s direct. It’s simple hockey.”

“I’m buzzing with excitement,” said Sarah Arshad, a self-described “huge” Leafs fan, after the game. “It’s so incredible, especially after the last game. They were playing so, so well, and coming out with those two goals and winning was just the icing on top of the cake.”

At the beginning of the game, fans were cautiously optimistic. “It’s the playoffs,” said fan Josh Wulff, whose collection of Leafs memorabilia has reached “not even funny” levels.��“If you don’t come to play, you’re not going to win. Let’s hope the boys bring it tonight, and let’s bring the cup home.”

After the first period, with still no goals in sight, the crowd’s energy died down, but fan Evan Dantas remained upbeat. “We’re playing physical, we’re playing fast, we’re not shying away,” he said. “We’re taking it to them, so if we keep the pressure on, if we keep outshooting them… we’re going to win the game.”

The game wore on, 0-0. “I’m a little stressed out,” admitted fan Ireland Hosick. “It’s looking a little too even right now. The first half the Leafs were on top. The second half the Florida Panthers were on top. This game is way too even. I’m thinking overtime, maybe.”

Then, a reprieve: Matthews scored. Maple Leaf Square went wild. They shook each other by the shoulders, threw their popcorn in the air, and grinned up at the big screen. When Pacioretty doubled the lead, fans knew it was a done deal.��

The Game 6 victory forces a win-or-go home Game 7 on Sunday in Toronto. But the Leafs have seen their fair share of playoff heartbreak in recent years. pc28����is 2-13 in series-clinching games since 2018.��

That year, against the Boston Bruins, the Leafs had a 4-3 lead heading into the third period of Game 7 before allowing four unanswered goals. In 2019, again against the Bruins, they had a 3-2 series lead and then lost two straight games. A year later, they lost in the bubble after a historic comeback in Game 4 against the Columbus Blue Jackets, technically not even qualifying for the playoffs.

They went up 3-1 against the Montreal Canadiens in 2021, and then lost three straight. 2022 was a repeat of 2019, but that time to the Lightning, who they beat in the first round of the following year��— only to lose in five games to the Panthers in the second round. Finally, last season, they stormed back from a 3-1 deficit to the Bruins, yet again, before losing in overtime in Game 7.

The Leafs entered Friday night staring down elimination, down 3-2 in their best-of-seven second-round series against Florida. After winning the first two games at home to go up 2-0, the Leafs lost both on the road in Florida’s Amerant Bank Arena before suffering a 6-1 shellacking in the pivotal Game 5 on home ice.����

Fans hope Sunday will be different.��

“Oh my God, I’m so excited,” says Hazel Kibria, who has played hockey and watched the Leafs for many years. “I wasn’t even sure if we were going to win, but I had hope for everyone … I’m just really excited about this one.”

“It’s pretty spectacular to see how passionate Leafs Nation is,” said Eric Pronio, who had the belt for Game 5 in the Leafs’ opening-round series against the Ottawa Senators. “I like to think I’m a pretty big Leafs fan. And then there’s just another level every other day. It’s pretty cool to be a part of it.”

Leafs fans have loved the team’s championship belt since players started handing it out in 2022. But because the Leafs didn’t announce who got it after each win, fans had to dig. Reporters usually had to ask players directly. With no official record, fans built online trackers to follow the belt’s journey — and when they couldn’t find the answer, some messaged reporters for the inside scoop.

As the belt’s popularity grew,��the team began posting the recipient on social media after each game to keep fans in the loop. And now, they’ve extended the tradition.

So far this post-season, 12 fans have had the Passion Belt — one for each game played. The hand-off usually happens at the Maple Leaf Square tailgate outside Scotiabank Arena, though accommodations can be made for fans who want to stay anonymous.

Each recipient chooses who to pass the belt to next, and is encouraged to pick someone based on positive social media content — ideally outside their immediate friend group.

Bilal Abowat, who passed the belt to Pronio, says he’s been a Leafs fan for at least two decades. He made sure to bask in the glory during his time holding the belt.

As a wrestling fan, he brought it with him wherever he could. It even became a talking point at work. His mom was so intrigued, she posted it on Facebook. Before handing it off, he brought it to a pre-game dinner, where nearby diners were so impressed they tried it on for photos.

“It’s a great initiative to really get fans involved,” he said. “I have a ton of jerseys at home. I have a ton of merch from the Leafs, but a belt is something that’s really cool and unique. I think it’s really cool to mimic our favourite players on the team.”

Elizabeth Malcolm, who lives in Ottawa, is the belt’s current holder. She was shocked — but excited — when her friend asked if she’d accept it.

Her brother drove from Barrie to take her to the tailgate. At the Square, fans kept asking where she got it. One even showed her an eBay listing, thinking that’s where it came from. (It’s available from the online NHL shop for $905 before taxes.)

“There were a bunch of kids that were just reminding me why I like sports,”��Malcolm said, who’s driving back to the Square Friday night to pass on the belt. “They were just there and still watching, hoping that the Leafs would do better while everyone else was, like, grumbling and leaving. So it was cute to have kids ask how I got it and where it’s from. And when I say I got it from the team, they go, ‘Wow! That’s cool.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, it is cool.’��

Joe Ferguson also held the belt during the opening round against the Senators. Since the belt was “really heavy,” he usually wore it around his waist, taking photos with it at different pc28����landmarks and even while walking his dog.

He said it was an honour to be recognized by another fan on social media for what he posts online.��

“You get to kind of feel like you’re an��actual champion for a couple of days,” he said.

Beyond this year, fans want to see the tradition continue for the next playoff run. But as the team faces elimination on Friday, down 3-2 in their best-of-seven series against the Florida Panthers, they hope it this year.��

What happens to the belt if they are eliminated? Fans will have to wait and see.

“Ultimately, I want to see it get passed around until the end of June,” Pronio said, “when the boys lift the Cup.”