Having home ice is certainly advantageous when playing against the back-to-back Cup champs, as Giordano stated, and is much better than having to play a potential Game 7 in front of a raucous Tampa crowd.
Considering the last time Leafs had home ice (with fans in the stands) was 2004, it is a luxury they have not seen in quite some time. That 2004 series saw the Leafs beat the Sens in 7 games with the Leafs winning games 5 and 7 on home ice. Let's hope history repeats itself over the next week and the Leafs take advantage of the home ice as they did in Game 1. It most definitely won't be easy as this series has shown, but the players should get an extra spark with surprisingly loud fans in Scotiabank Arena for tonight and a potential Game 7 Saturday.
POLL | ||
10 MAI | 491 ANSWERS Giordano talks about the Leafs' state of mind heading into best-of-3 against Bolts How will the rest of the series unfold? | ||
Leafs in 6 | 260 | 53 % |
Lightning in 6 | 33 | 6.7 % |
Leafs in 7 | 157 | 32 % |
Lightning in 7 | 41 | 8.4 % |
List of polls |