Bruce Boudreau still finds time, whenever he can. He’s coaching the league-leading Anaheim Ducks, charter member of the great NHL mumps epidemic of 2014, beset by injuries, hacking their way through the unforgiving West. But he still watches his other team. He likes what he sees in the Toronto Maple Leafs, these days.

“I’ve seen a different mindset,” said Boudreau before a 6-2 loss to the streaking Leafs. “I mean, they look more confident every game they play. Every game you watch, a lot of times it’s a 2-1 or a 1-0 game, and the Leafs just seem to be able — if they need a goal, they go find it. I mean, unfortunately for me, I watch every one of their games, because I’m a Toronto boy. I’m a Leafs fan, unless I’m playin’ em. I’d love them to win the East — I’m sure all my friends and my mum would, too.”

Part of that was prescient, as it turned out. The Leafs came in soaring along at your basic 9-1-1 clip, with all the confidence in the world. They’d just beaten Detroit twice, and Los Angeles too. And Tuesday night against the Ducks, in their third game in four nights, Toronto got outshot 42-27, continuing a quiet streak of the ol’ shot differential analytics easing down the hill. They relied on Jonathan Bernier to do some familiar calisthenics. Boudreau had the scoring chances in the first period at 13-2 Anaheim, and the shots were 14-5 Ducks in the second, but Toronto led 2-1 heading into the third. It felt . . . familiar.

And then the Leafs hung on the ropes for a few minutes before scoring four third-period goals, one of which was so pretty it summoned Ilya Bryzgalov back to the NHL, and won going away, zoom. The quiet old barn went nuts.

YOUR CALL!

“(Bernier) made some big stops for us early in the hockey game, and it seemed like we’d weather a bit of a storm, we’d get a chance, and we’d score,” said Carlyle. “So it would make us feel good about ourselves.” Told the Leafs were 13-0 when scoring first he all but shrugged and said, “we’ll keep riding the wave if we can.”

Boudreau’s team has long had trouble with the Leafs, for some reason, but he was a boy who grew up in the faith. He watched the varied collapses of the past three years like everyone else, and watched those two awful games before this run began. His own Ducks got destroyed in Game 7, and some Ducks say losing elimination games made them better, the way some Leafs hope last season made them smarter and stronger. Nobody knows yet, though.

“I hope so,” said Boudreau. “It’s given me ulcers. So until we get to that spot again, I won’t be able to know whether it benefited us or it hasn’t benefited us.”

Same here. The Leafs are two points out of first place in the East, leading the league in scoring, fourth in the NHL in goal differential. When you’re hot, you’re hot.

“(The 9-2 loss to Nashville Nov. 18) was an event for our hockey club, and you guys were part of it,” said Leafs coach Randy Carlyle. “That’s what happens when you lose 9-2 in this market, (and) it’s not going to change, it’s not going to change. It’s embarrassing. That’s one of the things that hopefully crystallized our group. And then salutegate, or whatever you call it — there were events that happened that changed our group, changed the way we played.

“Now, I feel that we are slipping, the last couple games. We have to get back to that more energetic, more stop-and-go, more straight-line hockey.”

“Look at Detroit against the Leafs last Thursday: They didn’t get rewarded,” said Boudreau. “But by the same token, the Leafs have earned so much that they’ve got now, and that’s probably because of hard work three weeks before. They got s---kicked by Nashville and then (said), wow, we gotta go.”

Leafs fans can be forgiven for looking at this run however they prefer. They can regard it with suspicion, like lab rats who have been shocked reaching for the cheese one too many times, and who will just wait to have it proven that this brie won’t flash-fry their nerves this time. They can enjoy the good times in isolation, and not worry that Toronto plays 17 of the next 22 on the road.

Or they can blue-sky hope. Some fans still do.

“I know this town. I’m here all summer, and I know,” said Boudreau. “It goes through peaks and valleys. But one of these days they’re going to go through that peak and they’re not going to come back down. And they learn from that, and that’s tough, but they’re better this year than they were last year.”

Fans worry, though, Bruce. They’ve seen some things. You know how it is.

“Well, of course. There’s a lot of negativity in this town. Nobody believed the Blue Jays were going to stay on top in May, either. They were all, when’s that shoe going to drop.”

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Well, about that . . .

“I know, but eventually it won’t! You gotta have faith.”

It’s the Leafs. Why do you have to have faith?

“It’s gonna happen,” Boudreau said. “S---, the Cubs are gonna win some day, too.”

He walked away, smiling. Good times in Toronto, for now.

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