Oliver Ekman-Larsson is set to return to the Toronto Maple Leafs‘ lineup after missing the final few games of the season due to injury, and he knows better than anybody what the team will have to prepare for if they want to make a long playoff run.

Ekman-Larsson, of course, was a member of the 2023-24 Stanley Cup-winning Florida Panthers. He stepped into a big role when Brandon Montour was out with an injury, quarterbacking the power play before settling into a role lower in the lineup after he returned. It was a testament to how deep that team’s defensive corps was, and ahead of Game 1 against the Ottawa Senators in the first round of the 2024-25 edition, he reflected on his experience last year and what the Leafs can take away from it.

“Just how hard it is to win,” Ekman-Larsson said when asked what his biggest takeaway from being on a Cup run. “That was the first time for me, to come out and go all the way, I guess, and just to see how much everybody has to put in the work and do the right things day in and day out.”

The 33-year-old’s trip to the final was only the second playoff run of his career, with the first coming in the 2019-20 playoff bubble. He acknowledged that showing up for work every day doesn’t mean that you won’t run into any bumps in the road.

“It’s not like we didn’t have any setbacks in last year’s final,” he continued. “We had some games we weren’t playing good, but we found a way to bounce back and found a way to get past whatever it was.”

The Senators have drawn more penalties than any other team in the NHL, and Ekman-Larsson is part of a Leafs team that’s turned things up a notch physically this season. Pair that with the heat that will come with facing a divisional rival, and a historic one at that, and it becomes apparent that staying out of the penalty box will be crucial to winning this series.

“I think it’s a balance,” Ekman-Larsson said. “Going into a playoff series like this, I think you talk a lot about a lot of different stuff, so you have to find that line and I think that’s what playoffs is about too, you don’t want to get away from your game, but at the same time you don’t want to take penalties that will cost you in games.”

Ekman-Larsson finished this season with four goals and 29 points in 77 games, and barring any injuries, seems primed to spend the series on the bottom pair with Simon Benoit. He will see time on the second power play unit and the penalty kill, as well, and if the Leafs are in a position where he’s their fourth or fifth best defenceman, they’re in a good position on the back end for this series.

Game 1 is set for Sunday night at 7:00 pm eastern time.