Craig Berube Under Pressure to Succeed Where Sheldon Keefe Failed in Toronto

With the Maple Leafs set to start their playoffs on Sunday against the Ottawa Senators (barring some wild divisional changes over the next week), it's going to be a Battle of Ontario to kick off the postseason in what feels like a series from the early 2000's.

No doubt, there's going to be a lot of exciting hockey, and while the Maple Leafs could be considered the favored squad going into the series, we can't count Ottawa out at all.

The Leafs do have a bit of a leg up on the Sens as they ended up securing home-ice advantage in the first round, and while Toronto is going to need the home crowd to be off the charts loud and passionate, there's still a big factor that Craig Berube needs to make sure of.

Where Sheldon Keefe tried to utilize his wild and wacky lineups trying to gain and advantage, Craig Berube needs to stick to his guns and what's worked this season and not get caught up in trying to do too much to spark offense.

The Maple Leafs have not had much success on home ice, and while it may be due to some pressure playing in front of their fans, there's really no excuse to waste line changes or not come away with more victories; especially this iteration of the team.

The Leafs need to stick with what got them to the dance in the first place, and there is no room for error with only seven games to work with.

Now is the time to look at the lineup and see who would best fit into a playoff roster, and names on the bubble like Calle Jarnkrok and Nick Robertson need to prove they can handle the workload and not get too cute (Robertson) or get caught a few steps behind (Jarnkrok).

With two games against some pretty weak teams to finish off the season, perhaps it would be in the team's best interest to sit their stars in preparation for a tough Round One and see some other faces, but do they really want to risk preventing one of their players from making history?

It's a tough call for the Maple Leafs if they run into some struggles and Craig Berube can't begin to panic if things aren't working out the way he wants right away.

What got the team this far is a gritty, hard-nosed style of play. Straying away from that will end up with yet another failure, and make Berube's historic season feel like a complete waste.