Twenty years ago our 1993 Maple Leaf team played three Game 7s during a memorable playoff run.

It was quite the ride, beating Detroit and St. Louis in deciding games before Wayne Gretzky and the Los Angeles Kings defeated us at Maple Leaf Gardens in Game 7 of the western conference final to keep us from meeting the Habs in the final.

On Monday night, the Leafs once again will step onto the ice for a Game 7, this time against the Boston Bruins at the TD Garden.

Given all the talk prior to this series about the relative post-season inexperience of the young Leafs, the common belief might be that Randy Carlyle’s team might suffer from the jitters of youth in such a do-or-die game.

I don’t buy into that argument because I think they have already played two Game 7s in this series. Once they were down 3-1 in this series, every subsequent contest was an elimination game. They won the next two to deadlock the series. This one is no different. Lose, and you are out.

The hardest thing for a player about a Game 7 is the anticipation of it. You think about it. You play out different scenarios in your mind. Yet, until the puck is dropped, there is nothing you can do about it.

Maybe the fact that the Bruins plane couldn’t get out of Toronto on Sunday will help Boston by shaking up their normal gameday routine. Something needs to change. The pressure has been on the Bruins the past two games and they haven’t handled it well. Someone needs to step up for them on Monday night or their season will be over.

At the same time, you can probably expect Bruins coach Claude Julien to tell his players that “if I had told you at the start of the season we’ll have a Game 7 down the road on home ice with a chance to advance in the playoffs, wouldn’t we welcome that chance?” You bet they would.

As for the Leafs, here are my three keys for Toronto for Game 7.

1) Weather the storm in the first five minutes. It is going to be loud in that building especially early on. The Bruins are going to be playing with desperation. Get through this initial push, and the Leafs might be able to take the Bruins and their fans out of the game.

2) Simplify your game, especially early on. No pucks through the middle. Just get them out of your zone. Don’t give the hosts any gifts.

3) Play with desire. Given what we’ve seen lately, this shouldn’t be a problem for the young Leafs.

- Former Maple Leaf captain Doug Gilmour is a guest columnist for the Toronto Sun