The Toronto Maple Leafs are heading to the Eastern Conference semifinals after taking down the Ottawa Senators in six games on Thursday night. However, the series could've gone to seven after William Nylander nearly didn't play.

The Swede, who had two goals and an assist, didn't have his name on the official roster before Game 6 by mistake, as his brother Alex Nylander was initially on the roster. The gaffe was thankfully fixed before puck drop, and Nylander had the perfect reaction to the situation postgame:

“I heard about it after the game, but yeah, luckily somebody caught that,” said Nylander.

That would've been a true nightmare situation. Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube claimed if everything was done by hand, this wouldn't have happened in the first place:

“We never would have made that mistake in the old days when we just wrote the names in by hand, too,” Berube told The Athletic.

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He makes a valid point. Regardless, it didn't happen, and Nylander did play. He was brilliant in the series overall, leading the Maple Leafs with three goals and six assists. The Toronto core as a whole all did their part, including Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and John Tavares.

The Leafs now move on to face the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. However, they will have home ice advantage since Toronto did win the Atlantic Division. The Cats were the third seed. Florida beat the Maple Leafs in five games in the 2023 playoffs.

Berube's group needs to keep firing on all cylinders if they're going to knock off the champs, and that means Nylander must keep playing at an extremely high level.

This Maple Leafs-Panthers series should be an absolute war, and it will be interesting to see if Nylander and Co. can pull off the upset because let's be honest, they're heading in as an underdog.