ANAHEIM

The last thing the Anaheim Ducks want to be doing Wednesday night is playing Game 7.

Not when they had a chance to close out Nashville in Game 6.

Not when their recent history in do or die games is mostly die.

The Predators, on the other hand, after trailing this series 3-2 before staving off elimination Monday, can’t think of anywhere else they’d rather be doing.

So one would think Nashville has a psychological edge going into the deciding game in Anaheim, given that they are facing an opponent forced into this situation against its will.

“I completely disagree with that,” said Anaheim veteran Andrew Cogliano. “We were down 2-0, so to say there’s no pressure on them ... I don’t agree with that. Like any Game 7, there’s pressure on both teams.

“We’re excited. It’s one game for the series. We fought our way back from 0-2 and we fought for home ice all season. We’re going to use that advantage now.”

That’s the angle Anaheim is working for this game: Never mind that Nashville came back from 3-2 to force Game 7, the Ducks came back from 0-2 to force Game 7. So there.

“If you told us after the first couple of games that we’d have an opportunity to play Game 7 in our home building I think we’d have taken it,” said defenceman Cam Fowler, pointing out that momentum should be with the team that’s 3-1 in the last four games of the series.

“We’ll make sure that we’re ready. The main thing is just to embrace it. It’s an exciting time. I think this is my fourth or fifth Game 7 and I’m just as excited as I was about the first one. I think we’re all looking forward to it.”

Anaheim, considered a Stanley Cup favourite by many when the playoffs began, never expected to be pushed to the brink this early, but now that they’re here they have two options: respond, or live with the fact their championship drive lasted all of three wins.

“I don’t think you can ever block out the stakes, we all understand what’s on the line,” said Fowler. “But you have to prepare like you have all season long. You can’t just block out that it’s Game 7, but you have to focus on the simple things that got you to that point.”

While this is the first ever Game 7 in Predators franchise history, Anaheim has played a few of them before, most recently in 2015 when they blew a 3-2 series lead on Chicago and lost Game 7. And in 2014, when they blew a 3-2 series lead on Los Angeles and lost in Game 7.

Head coach Bruce Boudreau is also 1-6 in career Game 7s.

So the Ducks aren’t just facing a feisty Predators team that posted the fourth best record in the NHL over the final 28 games of the season (16-6-6), they’re facing two years’ worth of demons.

But Boudreau doesn’t want his team to play scared.

“You don’t get anywhere by playing not to lose, you have to play to win,” he said. “That’s what (Nashville) did the last couple of games. They’ve out-competed us the last couple of games. We’ve won one of them but we’ve got to get back to where we can out compete the other team.”

Cogliano says the baggage from 2014 and 2015 isn’t an issue. Instead, they view this Game 7 as a chance to slay a nemesis, like St. Louis just did against Chicago and San Jose just did against the Kings.

“We have some older guys who’ve been in situations like this that we can use,” he said, when asked why this year’s team is better prepared to break through its glass ceiling. “And we’ve been through adversity this year, we’ve experienced some tough times and we’ve battled back and I think we can use that to our advantage.

“We all know what we need to do to play well. We’ve had really strong games this year where we’ve played really good teams and gave them nothing.”

They’ll need another one of those games against a Predators team that can’t be any more excited about forcing this thing to a Game 7 stage.

“Before (Game 7) game, even though you try to think about Game 6, I was kind of thinking about Game 7,” said Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne. “It's a great feeling. I’ve never experienced Game 7, not even in the minors or anywhere. It's something new, and I'm just really stoked about it.”

DUCKS WON'T PLAY IT SAFE

Safe is death.

The Anaheim Ducks would know on account of all the times they played it safe and died.

But they are vowing to learn from their mistakes in 2014 and 2015 as they head into another Game 7 Wednesday night against the Nashville Predators.

“Safe is going to get you nowhere,” said winger Andrew Cogliano. “Being timid or hoping for something is going to get you where it’s gotten us… where we’ve lost the last couple of years.

“If you’re coming out and hoping for something or waiting for something to happen, you lose. I think a lot of guys have understood that over the last couple of years.”

Defenceman Cam Fowler says Anaheim has already seen in this series what happens when they play a passive game.

“You have to play aggressively, you have to play on your toes,” he said. “You have to do the things that got you here as a team and for us that’s being aggressive, that’s being physical. Any time we sit back and wait for teams, that’s when we get in trouble.”

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rtychkowski@postmedia.com