Preds Believe Anyone, Everyone Can Play Role of Hero in Game 7

Just uttering the phrase is enough to create goosebumps, to bring about the thoughts of what might be, what could be, how a victory would feel.
When the Predators take the ice Thursday night at Bridgestone Arena, they'll be doing so in a setting never before seen in Nashville. Never before have they hosted a do-or-die, winner-take-all contest.
But there's a first time for everything. And with a win, it would be the second consecutive trip for the home club to the Western Conference Final.

Indeed, one of the biggest nights in Smashville's 20-season history is almost upon us. And the Preds can't wait.
"Just those two words, 'Game 7,' get the juices flowing," Preds center Nick Bonino, who has played in five Game 7s in his NHL career, the most of any Predators player, said. "They get you amped up. They're fun to watch, and they're even more fun to play in."
The third Game 7 in franchise history comes tomorrow night, final meeting between the Predators and the Winnipeg Jets in a Round Two series that has come as advertised.
Each game between the two clubs, who finished with the top two records in the League this season, has been more unpredictable than the previous. And this time, the Preds and Jets are settling in for one more classic that will end with handshakes no matter what. The only difference is someone will be hosting the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday, while the other will be packing their bags.
No pressure, right? In some ways, not really.
See, the Predators say they've essentially been in this position already just a few days earlier in Winnipeg. Facing a 3-2 series deficit, the Preds shut out the Jets by a 4-0 final in Game 6, arguably their most complete game of the series to date.
They performed just fine in that situation.

"Game 6 was do or die," Nashville defenseman Yannick Weber said. "We realized in Winnipeg, if we lose, this is it. It has to be the same mindset tomorrow."
When it comes to Game 7 participation, the Predators have a decided edge over their opponents. This will be Nashville's third Game 7 in club history, compared to Winnipeg's first instance. Not the greatest discrepancy there, but when it comes to individual stats, there are some gaps.
The Predators have 20 players on their current roster who have skated in at least one Game 7 in their NHL career, 18 of whom who have done so in two or more. Behind Bonino leading the way, are Scott Hartnell and P.K. Subban with four each. Only seven Jets players on the active roster have ever participated in a Game 7. Only two have been victorious.
Preds Head Coach Peter Laviolette is 5-2 all-time in Game 7s, while Jets bench boss Paul Maurice is 2-0, both wins coming as coach of the Carolina Hurricanes in 2009. Laviolette is one of just four coaches in NHL history to have won a Game 7 in all four rounds of the postseason, including a 3-1 victory in the last game of the 2006 Stanley Cup Final with Carolina.
So, what does all that experience mean? Maybe not as much as one would surmise. Laviolette has said on multiple occasions in the last two days he won't be counting on experience to win the game for Nashville, nor will he necessarily look to a home-ice advantage to propel the Preds over the top - although we've all seen what a Smashville Standing O can do.
Rather, for Laviolette and the Preds, it simply comes down to something they've said all season long: When the Predators play to the level they know they're capable of reaching, they believe they can beat any team in the League.
They have another chance to prove that on one of the biggest stages in hockey.
"We've been working all year for this," Hartnell said. "It's an exciting time, and you have to relish this moment and make sure we're playing our best hockey. Safe is death in this room. We have to go out there and play as hard as we can, play as smart as we can and get the W at the end of the day."
"Every game in the playoffs is important, but if you make mistakes when it's Game 5, you go down 3-2 and you're not out of the playoffs," Bonino said. "Everything gets bigger, a little bit more amplified, but at the end of the day, it's just hockey."

Star players are expected to rise and thrive in moments like these, but Game 7 also holds the potential for a fourth-line grinder, a third-pair defenseman, to go from relative obscurity to a household name overnight.
That may be what makes Game 7 as special as it is - the unlimited potential for something unexpected, something spectacular to occur.
For the Predators, there's no more homework left to do, no feeling-out process to conduct in the game's opening period, no time to be timid or unsure of how to go about the intricacies of a Game 7.
After all, it's just hockey. And someone in the Nashville locker room could be a hero on Thursday. Or, perhaps they all will.
"The game has its own story, and you can't really control that; the only thing you can control is how well you execute the game plan, how well you play in your own shift," Weber said. "Everybody knows his role at this point and everybody knows how we need to play tomorrow to have success. If everybody has that mindset, we'll have a lot of heroes tomorrow."