The more games there are, the more excitement builds up! NHL fans, am I right? Looks like we’re in for an electric Game 7 showdown between Craig Berube’s Toronto Maple Leafs and Paul Maurice’s Florida Panthers in the round 2 of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs! But, it’s a bit of a tricky situation for the Maple Leafs. It looks like promising Maple Leafs winger Matthew Knies probably won’t be available because of an injury, and with Florida sure to come at the Leafs in full force, Knies’ physicality might be sorely missed.

“We don’t know right now. He’s dealing with something here that happened, and we gotta look at him and see how he’s feeling tomorrow. We’ll see how he is,” said Berube. On the flip side, Florida is feeling optimistic about the steady progress in Matthew Tkachuk’s health. The Panthers star, who’s been dealing with some noticeable discomfort earlier in the series, seems to be getting his pace and physical edge back with each game. This could really make a difference in a winner-take-all situation.

After Florida’s 2-0 loss to the Maple Leafs in Game 6, Panthers head coach Paul Maurice wasted no time, shifting his attention to the crucial Game 7 coming up. Now that the series is tied, Maurice pointed out just how close things can get at this point in the postseason, particularly when it comes to the top teams in the league.

“Yeah, it’s an interesting thing. I think when you get to the, I was going to say eight, there’s six teams left, five teams left, six teams left. They’re all capable, right? They’re all capable of getting into a Game 7 and then harnessing it. Sometimes it’s just the way the puck bounces for you, but that tension is part of the Game 7. It’s about as honest a game as you’re going to find. There’s no cheating in that game. So that’s why they’re so much fun,” Paul Maurice said during the post-match press conference.

Maurice’s comments really highlighted the readiness and confidence in his locker room. It’s a group that’s been through this before and understands that pressure is just part of the game. The coach pointed out that Game 7 really shows what playoff hockey is all about. The Panthers are definitely stepping up to the challenge. Instead, they’re taking on the challenge, realizing that experience, determination, and maybe a bit of luck could be what it takes to move forward. So, Maurice’s reaction was pretty typical, even with the Game 6 loss.

Paul Maurice feels normal about the loss

“Not nearly as much as everybody in this room is going to write. But that’s not… it worked hard. They played hard tonight. But I thought that the last game… they got killed for that last game. They didn’t deserve to, in my opinion. We had four knucklers go in that probably don’t. It was a pretty tight game. Didn’t feel like that on the scoreboard,” Paul Maurice said after Game 6. The first two periods of the match were super close, even though neither team managed to score. So, Toronto really turned things around when Auston Matthews found the net in the third period at 6:20.

Basically, Florida couldn’t catch up, and they let another goal in from Max Pacioretty at 14:17. “But when you watch the game and you look at the analytics, that game, the 6-1 game, was the second-tightest game of the series. So this one will look a lot like that. There’s not as much offense. We had two pretty good offensive teams.”

There really isn’t a whole lot to be had out there. So they played hard. We played hard. It was tight. We had probably four go in last game. I’m not sure you’re counting on that happening on a regular basis or even every 10 or 20 games. We had a couple going off sticks. So when you get into a 0-0 game, it’s going to be tight,” Maurice said, drawing a comparison between Games 5 and 6.

The coach subtly suggested that, despite the story’s hints of a more resilient and powerful Maple Leafs club (whether as a result of internal shifts or external pressures), the team’s strategy in Toronto didn’t seem to be drastically different from his own. Maurice acknowledged both teams for their effort, but he pointed out that sometimes it really just comes down to puck luck—those unexpected bounces—and how the game can turn on the tiniest details rather than major shifts in strategy. Well, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see which team makes it to the Eastern Conference Final.