Series Talk: Do we even want home ice?

[HogTown06]

Maybe they want to be playing at home when they sweep Boston in round 1 so they can celebrate with the fans at the arena?

 

[Michoulicious]

They should avoid injuries at all cost and scratch the best players down the stretch.

 

[BTO]

All NHL rinks are 200' by 85', except for:
Buffalo - 196' by 85'
Chicago - 185' by 85'
Boston - 191' by 83'

So Chicago's is actually the smallest, although Boston's is the narrowest.

International or Olympic rinks are 61 metres by 30 metres (roughly 200' by 98.5').

Not sure where you're getting your information, but you might want to check the date - The old Boston Garden had a smaller ice surface, but the TD Garden has the standard 200'X85' dimensions.

 

[notDatsyuk]

Not sure where you're getting your information, but you might want to check the date - The old Boston Garden had a smaller ice surface, but the TD Garden has the standard 200'X85' dimensions.

Quite right. I forgot about that, and I never got to play in the new one. Playing goal in the old rink, it was noticeably smaller.

 

[Jmo89]

This is a bit of a captain obvious post, but IMO home ice doesn't matter a ton. Yes it can make a difference. What will make the biggest difference though is our best players showing up.

Will Matthews and Nylander produce this time? Can the JT line handle the Bergeron line? Will Kadri be suspended for half the series. Will our PK be horrible again. How about Andersen have 3 bad games, or our #2 D having the worst game of their career. All of these have more impact than home ice.

I have not been impressed by this team the past couple weeks, and if they play this way in the playoffs they'll likely lose. However, they went to the last period of a game 7 last year with an inferior team and all of the above problems.

Captain obvious, but if our best players play like our best players they'll win.

 

[2022 Stanley Cup]

It's not as much that I want home ice but I'd rather the Leafs just win all of the rest of the games in the season and whether we get home ice or not will be cool I guess. Who cares which building we're in it's probably even better if Babs can't matchup too much because he can get out of hand.

 

[tmlfan98]

Another captain obvious post, but ideally we win the series before game 7 regardless of who has home ice.

 

[Pi]

Don’t care home ice or not. Our play in the last 2 months or so lost us home ice unless Boston chokes it in the last 9 games. Time to win. That’s it. They better all show up ready to go in Game 1. We gave them a free win or two in the last series.

 

[nobody]

This is a bit of a captain obvious post, but IMO home ice doesn't matter a ton. Yes it can make a difference. What will make the biggest difference though is our best players showing up.

Will Matthews and Nylander produce this time? Can the JT line handle the Bergeron line? Will Kadri be suspended for half the series. Will our PK be horrible again. How about Andersen have 3 bad games, or our #2 D having the worst game of their career. All of these have more impact than home ice.

I have not been impressed by this team the past couple weeks, and if they play this way in the playoffs they'll likely lose. However, they went to the last period of a game 7 last year with an inferior team and all of the above problems.

Captain obvious, but if our best players play like our best players they'll win.

Completely agree with this. We had a ton of adversity to face the last time we played Boston. On top of Andersen being an absolute Seive for 3 games (he made up for it by being an absolute wall for 3 games) we had no secondary scoring outside of Mitch.

Both Auston and Willie went MIA and they were our top line last year. JVR and Bozak were atrocious leaders and provided us with absolutely nothing. Our 4th line did absolutely nothing with Plekanec and Kadri was in the pressbox for half the series.

I honestly believe to this day, we could have played that series out 10 times and the Leafs would've won more than the Bruins. Bruins got a ton of bounces while we had guys stone cold and struggling.

Another major thing that I remember from last year was the million posts that Kappy hit. The guy couldn't buy a goal to save his life, this year I don't see him missing those opportunities like that.

Our biggest test will be the backend. If we can somehow get Dermott, Oziganov and Rosen on that bottom pair instead of Holl and Marincin, I feel much more comfortable.

But again, like the other teams have stated, if you ever want to win the cup you're going to have to go through 4 good teams. Theres no easy matchups in the playoffs. We are the Caps and Boston is our Penguins. They are the boogie monster that we have to slay in order to get anywhere in the playoffs. You beat them and the confidence boost this franchise and fanbase will get is immense.

Right now and even last year Boston was never the better team but they lived (and still do) rent free in the minds of the players and fans. We're better than the Boston Bruins, but we've been conditioned to fear them.

 

[zeke]

Still have a chance to get home ice, but it's fading fast.

Still, we have a schedule that we can make a nice run on, if we keep playing like we have the last 2gms.

Non-Playoff Teams: NYR, FLA, PHI, OTT - we have to sweep these 4gms

Bubble Teams: NYI, CAR, MTL - these teams should be battling hard, so will be tougher, but still we shouldn't lose these games. MTL may be eliminated by the time we play them, too.

Contenders: TBL - obviously a tough matchup, but in their 2nd last game of the season they might not have their foot on the pedal.


No reason we can't go on a nice run down the stretch.

 

[Golden Puppers]

OT but do people like the current playoff format or miss 1-8?

I get what they're trying to do with the new format but an 82 game hockey season is such a grind, the better teams should face worse teams. In baseball and football, teams even get byes.

I mean I guess NYI/PIT wouldn't be much relief compare to Boston anyway.

 

[JT AM da real deal]

You can't worry about things you can't control. We are likely starting on road at Boston. We need to rest Hainsey Marleau and Freddy for POs.

 

[Pilky01]

We want Wild Card spot 1 ideally.

Hell I would take Wild Card 2. We have played Tampa better than Boston.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Bruins are:

28-7-3 at home
16-13-6 on the road

so yeah, you'd want home ice if you can get it

 

[ORRFForever]

Re : "Do we even want home ice?"

No!!!

That way, when we get swept, there won't be that awful plane ride home from Boston.

 

[Anthrax442]

Re : "Do we even want home ice?"

No!!!

That way, when we get swept, there won't be that awful plane ride home from Boston.

They might win a game or two

 

[ORRFForever]

They might win a game or two

 

[Judas Tavares]

Yes. The games in Toronto aren't as physical and there the Leafs have a better chance to set the tone. I'd rather the Leafs be in a confident mindset after Game 2, not be in the middle of the apocalypse. Not to mention not being in demonville during Game 7.

In an unrelated note, win Game 4. I realize previous series don't have a bearing on the next ones, but in all 3 series since they started making the playoffs again, they lost Game 4, which really hurt their momentum after winning all 3 Game 3s.

Also, going up 3-1 would be nice. The Leafs have not been up 3-1 in a series since 1987 (which they blew to Detroit). They Leafs have played 26 series since then and have never been up 3-1, which I just find randomly bizarre.