Not unlike most teams that remain standing, the Anaheim Ducks must overcome a hurdle that's induced more than just a few postseason face plants.
When Anaheim hosts the Nashville Predators in the terminal clash of its first-round series Wednesday, it'll be looking to snap a three-season run of having its postseason bid end in a Game 7 on home ice.
Historical context is most often overblown. And it's important to note that just four players - Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Andrew Cogliano, Cam Fowler - were around to experience each previous defeat. But without question, every player in the room feels the weight of those failures.
And for that, they're the wiser.
"Safe is going to get you nowhere," Cogliano said, according to Curtis Zupke of the Los Angeles Times. "Being ... timid, or hoping for something, is going to get you absolutely where it does, and that's where we've lost the last couple of years. We need to come out and be willing to out-compete them."
The Ducks were paralysed by two Jonathan Toews goals within the first 12 minutes of last season's culminating clash in the Western Conference Final versus the Chicago Blackhawks before falling behind 4-0. Just 11 months removed, those memories are still vivid, and an important reminder to force the issue.
"You can't go out there and play not to lose," Fowler said. "You have to play aggressive. You have to play on your toes. You have to do the things that got you here as a team and, for us, that's playing aggressive, that's (being) physical, because any time we sit back and we wait for teams, that's when we get in trouble."
