Holy...$1000 for a pair? No wonder Leafs tickets are always so expensive on the secondary market. You're all coming down here and buying the tickets! My dad used to do the reverse - he'd drive up to Toronto to catch Red Sox@Blue Jays games because it was cheaper.
Pricing really depends on when you buy the ticket, the day of the week, the round, the game number, and the series scoreboard. Last year for the Senators series, I paid $105 per ticket for the cheapest ticket I could find to the first home game (game 3 of the series on a Monday), and I bought it a little over a week before the game. I don't recall seeing any big dips after I bought it. Leafs should command a bigger price - O6 rivlary, 4-1 revenge, and Austonmania.
If the Bruins get home ice, the series won't start until Thursday 4/12 at the earliest, thanks to P!nk and the Celtics. Last year, playoffs started Wednesday/Thursday, but if any series would be delayed to Friday, it would be the Bruins, thanks to our extended regular season. You could gamble and buy a $144+fee (probably ~$180 total) per ticket on StubHub now for "Game 1", but you don't know the day or the opponent, so you might be stuck with a Bruins/Lightning weekday game.
As far as seat quality, I wouldn't worry a whole lot. I've been in row 15 in the balcony on the end, and still felt I had a good view of the action, but that's just my opinion. I've seen college hockey two rows behind the bench, and the seats were actually worse, because all I could see was the players' heads and the coach's rear. Balcony seats have a good slope to them - you've got a good climb, but that gives you a good view.