Leafs forward Ryan O'Reilly touches on the opportunity the Leafs have to eliminate the Lightning on home ice tonight
The Leafs have a chance to end a 19-year drought tonight and end a 6 year streak of being eliminated in round 1. They hold a 3-1 series lead over the Lightning with a chance to close it out on home ice at Scotiabank Arena.
Following their morning skate, pre-deadline acquisition Ryan O'Reilly commented on the circumstances the Leafs find themselves in. "We've put ourselves in a good spot here, but this is a game where we want to dictate a bit more we want to go at them a bit more and control the game more."
O'Reilly is bang on when he says the Leafs need to dictate the game more as the Lightning have carried the play the past two games and the Leafs have been lucky enough to come out with two wins. Not only did O'Reilly touch on how the Leafs want to play tonight, but he also echoed Auston Matthews' comments from a few days ago about the fourth game being the hardest to win saying, "They know how to win. They're going to throw everything they possibly have at us. This is going to be our toughest challenge yet of the series, to close these guys out."
With three chances to close out the series, the Leafs and Leafs Nation is hoping that it only takes one, being tonight's Game 5. They'll need to find that next gear and bring that killer instinct if they hope to knock off Tampa tonight. The Bolts have been to 3-straight Stanley Cup Finals. You don't do that if you can't play well under pressure.
