Coming off of a second consecutive wasted put-away opportunity in which the team inexplicably started slowly, clawed their way back from a multi-goal deficit, and lost in overtime in gut-wrenching fashion, it still feels pretty surreal to say — 48 hours after the Game 6 loss at the Bell Centre — that this series has come down to a winner-take-all Game 7 scenario for the Leafs.
It wouldn’t be melodramatic to suggest the outcome of this game could prove to be legacy-defining and franchise-altering for the core and management group of these Maple Leafs.