Imagine playing a Game 7 in your own building against the NHL’s most cursed franchise. And you are the ones bearing the burden of history.

That is the role the Bruins have created for themselves, against the Toronto Maple Leafs of all teams, when they take the ice for the do-or-die matchup on Saturday night on Causeway Street.

The B’s, who have won as many Game 7s as any team (15, tied with Montreal) and lost more than any (15), can set a rather ignominious mark if they lose. They would become the first team in any sport (NHL, NBA, MLB) to blow 3-1 leads in consecutive seasons, according to ESPN.

So they’ve got that going for them.

The teams have undergone a dizzying role reversal in less than a week’s team. Last Saturday at Scotiabank Arena, the Leafs were booed off the ice by their fans after the B’s suffocated them in their own building to take what looked like a commanding 3-1 series lead. To make matters worse, the Leafs’ best player, 69-goal scorer Auston Matthews, was pulled from that Game 4 and would miss the next two games. Beleaguered coach Sheldon Keefe looked like a man who was slowly walking the plank.

But a funny thing has happened. The Leafs’ team that has been built so heavily – top-heavily, to be honest – on stars, became something completely different once the brightest one was taken out of the equation.

The Leafs (12-14 in Game 7s) have become that plucky, gutsy, shot-blocking everyman team. They have become, in the ultimate coach-speak compliment, a tough team to play against.

The B’s, on the other hand, have gone to extraordinary lengths to give the Leafs hope. When they seemingly needed to land just one early jab to end this series, they accumulated a grand total of three shots on net combined in the two first periods in Games 5 and 6, exasperating B’s coach Jim Montgomery, now the one under the microscope.

“It’s unacceptable, our start again,” said Montgomery moments after the Game 6 loss. “We’ve got to find a way to start on time and we’ve got to find a way to be better. Toronto’s starting on time, they’re getting the advantage, they have the momentum. I thought the last 30 minutes we pushed back really well, but it shouldn’t take that long.”

The pressure is mounting on Montgomery, who could well be coaching for his job on Saturday. Up 3-1, he made a couple of questionable lineup changes for Game 5 and the B’s have not been the same team since then, no matter how much or little the changes had to do with that loss. Throughout his two-year tenure, Montgomery has been careful to be supportive of his players. But while he praised David Pastrnak’s effort, he essentially called out his star player (2-2-4 in six games), saying he needs to step up and be the dominant player he can be.

We’ll see if that approach yields better results.

Keefe, on the other hand, looked like a relaxed man when he met with reporters after Game 6, especially when he was asked what it will be like to coach another Game 7.

“In my mind, we just played two Game 7s,” said Keefe, who told reporters in Toronto that Matthews has made “progress” but his Game 7 availability is TBD.

And they’ve found a way to win those two crucial playoff games not with their abundant skill but with something they’ve been lacking in the recent past – gumption.

“They’ve pulled together. They’ve fought, you know?” said Keefe. “Didn’t lay down, didn’t accept their fate. They changed it. They’ve been tremendous in terms of their work ethic.”

Even Keefe’s silly Brad Marchand-gets-away-with-everything lament after Game 3 has seemingly produced results. The B’s – who had torched the Leafs on the power play (6-for-13) in the first four games – got just one man-advantage apiece in Games 5 and 6. Pontus Holmberg holding on to Marchand for dear life in Game 5? Play on. Holmberg’s dangerous hit from behind on Mason Lohrei? Nothing to see here.

Then again, it’s tough to draw penalties when you don’t have the puck. The Leafs have won battles along the walls. They’ve captured the inside ice, at least in front of their own net. And they’ve owned the faceoff circle (62.6% in the last two games), fueling possession and refusing to allow the B’s faltering offense to get any kind of momentum.

Now the Leafs, who haven’t won a Stanley Cup since 1967 and haven’t beaten the B’s in a playoff series since 1959, can exorcise some well-known demons. In the past 11 years, no team has tormented them more than the Bruins. The B’s have beaten them three times in Game 7s at the Garden in 2013, 2018 and 2019. They infamously blew a 4-1 third-period lead in ‘13, and bad suspensions to Nazem Kadri helped along their demise in the other two years.

As they were set to pack a big bag for what they believe will be their second round series against the Florida Panthers starting on Monday, the Leafs did not seem like a bunch that was hiding from their history.

Meanwhile, as all of Bruins Nation was losing its collective mind in the aftermath of the Game 6 loss, Marchand tried to put the situation in perspective.

Said the captain: “If someone told us at the start of the season we’d have a Game 7 at home against Toronto, we’d take that all day. It doesn’t matter how you get there. We’re there.”

True words. Now he and his teammates need to play like they believe them.

Boston Bruins captain Brad Marchand protects the puck from Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner (16) during first-period action in Game 6. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via AP)