It would be easy to see the Maple Leafs win Game 6 on the road to the Panthers just to lose Game 7 at home and break the hearts of their fans again. Toronto hasn’t hoisted the Stanley Cup since 1967. This time, however, I believe it pulls out the unlikely comeback after a lopsided 6-1 loss in Game 5 left the team for dead in the eyes of many. The Maple Leafs have enough talent to get to the conference final, and that talent will come through for the Maple Leafs’ biggest win in decades. Matthews scored his first goal in seven games to help win Game 6, and goal-scorers tend to net them in bunches. If Matthews can have another big game, the rest of the Maple Leafs will follow. -- Derek Van Diest, staff writer

I’ve been covering the Maple Leafs for more than two decades, and the bitterness I saw and felt from the home crowd during Game 5 was unparalleled. The venom was fueled not so much by Toronto’s lack of execution in the 6-1 loss, but rather by the perception of a lack of effort from a skilled Maple Leafs team. Not only was it the first time I heard the home fans boo Matthews directly, but one of them tossed a No. 34 jersey onto the ice. It was, in a nutshell, “Leafian” -- a term used by former Maple Leaf player-turned-broadcaster Jeff O’Neill to describe the way this franchise underachieves at a time and in ways that crushes the collective hearts of its loyal fan base the most. It set the stage for what an entire city expected to be a season-ending loss in Game 6. Except it wasn’t. Instead, Toronto showed heart and grit to force a Game 7 and underscoring the notion that there is a different vibe under first-year coach Craig Berube. Hey, maybe they go “Leafian” again in Game 7, to no one’s surprise. But I’m putting aside my cynicism and picking Toronto, as much because of Berube’s influence as anything else. -- Mike Zeisberger, staff writer