ANAHEIM — Todd Marchant says he was never the same after playing a Game 7, that nobody is.

And he means that in a good way.

Nothing builds character more than the deciding game of a playoff series between two evenly-matched opponents who can’t afford to lose.

And nothing reveals it more, either.

“You’re going up against a team that’s just as good as you are and it can go one way or the other: you’re either going on or you’re going home,” said the former Oilers winger and current Anaheim Ducks assistant coach. “It can tell you a little bit about yourself. You go out and it’s winner take all.”

And there is nothing like it. Marchant played 1,290 regular season and playoff games in his career and few compared to his four Game 7s.

“It’s awesome. It’s what you play for. Hundreds of times you’ve been on a driveway or a pond or a backyard rink and it’s Game 7 of the Stanley Cup playoffs. When you find yourself in that opportunity as a player … I loved every minute of it.”

Marchant is 3-1 in those Game 7s, scoring that famous 1997 overtime winner over Dallas in one of them while a member of the Edmonton Oilers. It’s a game and a goal he is still asked about to this day.

“It’s kind of a blur how that play happened,” he recalled, standing outside the Ducks dressing room. “It was four-on-four and I remember being on the bench and we were pretty tired as a group. Our sole goal was to out-hit them every game. That’s how simple the game plan was. We were trying to get 100 hits every night.

“Then an opportunity presented itself. I saw Douggie (Weight) get the puck and I just took off.”

He blew past defenceman Grant Ledyard, corkscrewing him into the ice, and scored far side on goaltender Andy Moog.

“The thing that sometimes gets lost in the shuffle is the save Cujo (Curtis Joseph) makes just before that,” said Marchant. “It was just tremendous. We were a bunch of young kids who had an opportunity and took advantage of it.”

The Oilers were decided underdogs in the 1997 series, but won it with the character and determination that revealed itself in that Game 7 win.

“Once it starts, everything is important,” he said. “There are no little things in the game of hockey. People say we have to do the little things well, but to me there are no little things.

“Especially when you get to a Game 7. Every play is important. Getting it out, getting it in, a good line change, finishing a hit to make a play, turning the cheek after something. These things can be the difference in a game like that.

“It’s not something that you just turn on, it’s something you have to experience over time, starting from the first game of the regular season all the way through till the last playoff game.”

The Oilers couldn’t go all the way in ’97, but Marchant did win a Stanley Cup with Anaheim 10 years later. It was then that he realized just how precious a deep Stanley Cup run can be, and how nobody should never take it for granted.

“Because you might not get another opportunity,” he said. “You look at Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry, they haven’t been back to that point since they were rookies. I was only in that situation once in my entire career. Some guys never get that opportunity. You never know if you’re ever going to get that chance again. And you don’t know if this game might be the deciding one.”

So you have to make it count.

“It’s Game 7,” said Marchant. “Winner goes on, loser goes home.”

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rtychkowski@postmedia.com