Watching the Toronto Maple Leafs in the playoffs this season has been somewhat of a fever dream. Not just because they’re in the second round for only the second time in the past 20 years, but because of the way they’ve been playing and the way they respond to adversity.

It may have been hard to believe this time last year that the Leafs were simply a coaching change away from making a deep playoff run, and they still aren’t any closer, at least until they advance past the second round. But at this point, it’s impossible to deny that Craig Berube has had an impact on how this team responds when a bounce goes the other way.

Go back and watch any Leafs playoff loss during the Sheldon Keefe era, and odds are you’ll find a moment where the Leafs are keeping pace, only to allow a backbreaking goal and find themselves scrambling just to keep their heads above the water. Take last year in Game 7, for instance. William Nylander had just scored a huge goal about halfway through the third period to give the Leafs a 1-0 lead and ten minutes to shut it down for the series win. Instead, Boston’s Hampus Lindholm tossed a floater from the blue line that beat Ilya Samsonov and tied the game 1-1. The Bruins went on to win the game 2-1 in overtime.

This year, it’s been a different story, and you can find an example of the Leafs being the ones to respond to a bad bounce as opposed to letting the other team take the momentum back. In Game 1 against the Ottawa Senators, Ridly Greig scored early in the third period to make it 4-2 Toronto. The demons were flying through the brains of the fanbase, no doubt, with the never-safe 4-1 lead being chopped down to 4-2 and lots of time for the Senators to come back. Instead, Morgan Rielly scored to make it 5-2 only 45 seconds later.

In Game 2 of that series, the Leafs had a 2-0 lead after the first period, only for the Senators to tie it and push it to overtime. It took only three minutes and change into overtime for Max Domi to score the winner and clinch the game. Same thing in Game 3, the Leafs had the lead, lost it, but Simon Benoit of all people took matters into his own hands and scored the overtime winner just over a minute into the extra frame.

Perhaps the biggest instance of this new tendency from the Leafs came in Game 6 against Ottawa. The demons of past teams were circling the city as the Leafs returned to Ottawa for Game 6 after jumping ahead with a 3-0 series lead before dropping the next two. With the Senators possessing all the momentum, their tying goal in the third period was made all the more crushing by the fact that it was as flukey as you can get. Ottawa’s David Perron flipped the puck from behind the net, banking it off of goaltender Anthony Stolarz’s head and into the net. Past Leafs teams would have floundered in this moment, scrambling to keep the train on the tracks while their opponent continued to press, and if they were lucky, they’d get it to overtime. Not this time. Less than two minutes after the Perron goal, Max Pacioretty scored to get the lead back, and the Leafs went on to win the game.

Now, in the second round against the Florida Panthers, we’ve already seen multiple instances of the Leafs not allowing the Panthers to keep any momentum they get. In Game 1, the Leafs had a 2-0 lead thanks to a pair of tallies from William Nylander. Florida got one back shortly after the second goal, but it took a mere 19 seconds for Toronto to get its 2-goal lead back with a tally from Morgan Rielly. Heading into the third period with a 4-1 lead, Florida scored two quick goals to give them 15 minutes to tie the game, or better yet, take the lead.

Again, not this time.

Instead, the Leafs killed about ten minutes’ worth of time before Matthew Knies was sprung for a breakaway and scored an insurance goal to give the Leafs a bit of breathing room. Florida would score once more, but it wasn’t enough, and the Leafs won.

Game 2 vs. Florida was the most recent and possibly the unlikeliest version of this event. The Leafs had a 3-2 lead going into the third period, but the Panthers scored a little over five minutes into the period to tie the game at 3. And who else but Mitch Marner took all of 17 seconds to decide that wouldn’t fly and get the goal back.

The Leafs have preached a business-like attitude all throughout the playoffs, combined with the acknowledgement that each series could go seven games. Whether this is entirely a Berube effect, the Leafs’ core simply realizing how talented they are and what they can do when they’re on, or a combination of both, this is far and away the most playoff-ready Leafs team we’ve seen since they drafted Auston Matthews in 2016. It’s important that they don’t stray away from this attitude, but so far, it seems like they’re finally ready to put the years of lessons learned to use.