The Core 4 showed up. The special teams showed up. They overcame a horrendous, momentum-killing tying goal that would have iced previous teams. And, Max Pacioretty, yes, longtime Montreal Canadien Max Pacioretty, scored the game-winning goal to clinch a second round berth for the Toronto Maple Leafs with a 4-2 win on the road in Game 6.

After the Senators killed off a 4-minute power play in overtime of Game 4, won that game, and shut out the Leafs in their own barn for Game 5, it had all the makings of a classic demon-riddled affair for the Leafs. They had to go back to Ottawa for Game 6, with the Sens carrying more momentum than ever, and god forbid they lost, they would have had to face the biggest demon of all – a Game 7.

But it never got to that point. The Leafs got goals from both the core players (Matthews, Nylander x2) and the biggest one of all came from arguably the most unlikely candidate in Pacioretty. The latter’s goal was big not just because it was the game-winner, but because it came after the flukiest goal of the entire series, with David Perron banking the puck off of Anthony Stolarz’s head to tie the Game at 2. Again, this is the type of goal that sucks the life out of a team. It happened when Liam Foudy scored on Frederik Andersen in the do-or-die Game 5 of the bubble series against the Columbus Blue Jackets, when Hampus Lindholm put a floater from the point past Ilya Samsonov to tie Game 7 in Boston last season, and countless other times that I don’t have the capacity to dig up right now.

Point is, the Toronto Maple Leafs, at least for tonight, shed their demons and will face the Florida Panthers in Round 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Panthers have proven how tough of an out they are in the playoffs, and the Leafs know this firsthand from their last meeting in the playoffs back in 2022-23, when the Panthers squashed their curse-breaking momentum and took them out in five games.

But as Craig Berube and Brad Treliving will tell you, that’s in the past. And for now, the Leafs and their fans can enjoy a first-round victory over the Ottawa Senators, just like old times.