Depending on their age, these Leafs remember 2013 collapse in different ways

It was 4-1.

It was also five years ago.

That was the mantra in the Toronto Maple Leafsdressing room after practice on Monday, less than 24 hours after the team learned it would be facing Boston in a Round 1 rematch of the crushing Game 7 collapse on May 13, 2013.

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Nazem Kadri is one of four Leafs remaining that was active in that game in Boston, along with Leo Komarov, James van Riemsdyk and Jake Gardiner. Tyler Bozak missed the game with an upper-body injury.

On Monday, Kadri admitted he still thinks about that game, in which he scored the Leafs' fourth goal that most thought had put the game out of reach.

"It was hard to deal with. That next week or two was tough to watch, especially just playoff hockey in general," saidKadri, who called the lossthe toughest moment of hisNHLcareer so far. "Just knowing we had a chance to move on and it didn't happen."

But he said there's no point looking back.

"There's no sense thinking about it, really. It's over and done with and obviously both teams have drastically changed,"the now-veteran centre said.

"Mitchy still might've been in middle school."

Not quite. Mitchy, as in Marner, as in the Leafs' regular-season points leader and Kadri's linemate, was playing Junior A hockey with the St. Michael's Buzzers that year.

Marner, a native of Markham, Ont., is a lifelong Leafs fan. The now 20-year-oldcertainly remembers the loss.

The Leafs, who had missed the playoffs the previous seven seasons, were up 4-1 midway through the third period. But the Bruins reeled off three straight goals two with their goaltender pulled to send it to overtime, where Patrice Bergeronended it 6:05 in.

"As a Leaf fan it was tough watching it, but nothing you can do about it now," Marner said. "[It was] obviously a pretty entertaining series to watch."

Entertaining is about the most optimistic word anyone associated with the Leafs could use to describe that Game 7.

And like many others, Marner saideverything that happened after Bergeronscoredis a bit of a blur.

"Just kinda remember that OT finish," Marner said. "Not really sure where I was I just remember kind of walking away from the TV and going upstairs or something."

Connor Brown remembers exactly where he was.

"I was in Ireland with my family on a vacation. We were in our hotel room streaming [the game] on our laptop," said Brown, 24, who grew up a Leafs fan in the west Toronto suburb of Etobicoke.

The entire Brown family made a point of waking up at 4 a.m. local time to watch.

As a fan, Brown said the upcoming series against the Bruins has significance.

But in his job as a winger on the Maple Leafs, he said he has to not let that external noise get to him.

"I think this city puts a lot of pressure on our team, but we feel as if we're family in here and the only pressure we feel is what we put on each other," he said. "So we feel confident and ready."

For the Maple Leafs, 2018 has nothing to do with 2013, even though some faces on both sides remain the same.

But if Toronto wants to reverse the Boston curse, they'll need to exorcise the ghosts of series past: Bergeron, Brad Marchand, David Krejci, Zdeno Chara and former Leafs farmhand goalie Tuukka Rask.

And if the team's new young core wants to prove that it's different, beating Boston in a playoff series would be a great way to do it. Still, the players insist that it's only a stepping stone to the ultimate goal of a Stanley Cup.

"We want to make a deep run and Boston's the first team in the way," Brown said.

Marnersaid the same thing. Those two can take the longer view, because as difficult as it was for Leafs fans to watch their team blow a three-goal third-period lead and if you were at Maple Leafs Square that night, was it ever depressing it was even harder for the players on the ice.

But three days before another first-round series with Boston, does that 2013 series still matter?

"Not one bit," Kadri said.