Ducks fans, can you feel it?
A) Tension B) Excitement C) Desperation D) All the above
You can bet on D – because they all apply.
What Went Wrong
In my pregame blog before Monday's game, I laid out four things the Ducks needed to do to pull out a win. They did none of them and lost.
First, get off to hot start and take the crowd out of the game. Nope. The Ducks didn't score their first goal until close to the end of period two, after Nashville opened the scoring earlier in the period.
Second, win the physical battle. Nashville out hit the Ducks again. This time by a margin of 30-25.
Third, avoid the penalty box. They pretty much did that, BUT... too many men on the ice penalties, drive me (and most coaches) nuts.
Four, get Corey Perry rolling. It looked like Perry had the tying goal on his stick late in the third, but he couldn't beat Preds goalie Pekke Rinne.
I'm not saying I know everything about hockey or the Ducks, if I did I'd be the coach. The bottom line is, the Ducks didn't execute their plan and got outplayed.
The Right Approach
So what is the Ducks mindset going into this game? Are they haunted by the demons of games 7s past?
Their mindset is business as usual and as a group of professional athletes, “haunted… is the wrong word. Aware is better. They are aware of some of the team's previous game 7 failures, but as Corey Perry told the media, ‘It's a different year, it's a different team with different players, new guys who haven't been here for what we've gone through in the past. You've just got to go out and play hockey and not worry about all the other extra (stuff). You've just go to go out and play and keep pushing.'
Exactly. Play your best game and leave the past in the past.
I really liked Andrew Cogliano's comment about tonight's game. Its what the Duckverse has been thinking this entire series. He said, “Safe is going to get you nowhere, I think being safe or timid or hoping for something is going to get you absolutely where it’s gotten us. That’s where we’ve lost the last couple of years. We need to come out and be willing to out-compete them. Waiting for something to happen, you lose.…
It makes me think the team is in the correct frame of mind to win tonight.
Game 7: Nashville @ Ducks
It's win or go home tonight at the Honda Center. There are hundreds of cliches that can be used, but that sums it up. Coach Bruce Boudreau hinted that one of the previous scratches in this series will play tonight. It's likely Clayton Stoner. He was brought in by GM Bob Murray, because the big defenseman has a knack for raising his level of play in the second season.
Goalie Frederick Andersen still has not allowed more than two goals in any of his playoff starts. The Ducks will count on him to maintain his high level of play. The onus is on the offense to put more pucks in the net. As group they have been good not great. Tonight they need to be good enough to capitalize on their opportunities. To modify David Letterman's stance on voting to hockey, Anaheim must go out and score early and often. Here is tonight's expected lineup:
Forwards Perron-Getzlaf-Garbutt Thompson-Rakell-Perry Cogliano-Kesler-Silfverberg McGinn-Horcoff-Stewart
Defense Fowler-Bieksa Lindholm-Despres Stoner-Vatanen
Goalies Andersen Gibson