Ducks prefer to look ahead in playoff series with Predators, not back at last year

Past is not prologue, as far as the Ducks are concerned, even if the ink on the recent pages of their history is somewhat fresh.

They have been in this position each of the past two seasons, having a 3-2 series lead, and both have ended in anguish. The Ducks lost the final two games to the Chicago Blackhawks in last year’s Western Conference final and against the Kings in the 2014 semifinal.

Players expectedly closed the book on all that heading into Monday’s Game 6 with a 3-2 first-round series lead on the Nashville Predators.

“I look at that as last year,” Hampus Lindholm said. “That’s history for me. This is a new year, a new group. It doesn’t really bother me what happened that year … all that stuff that happened before. I don’t think anyone has that on their mind right now.”

Said Ducks Coach Bruce Boudreau about the past: “I’m not bringing it up.”

Questions about learning from the past has practically become a rite of spring for Boudreau. He said Sunday that it’s helped his approach in trying to find the right formula and cited “experience is the best teacher.”

Boudreau also said it’s a fine line between the emphasis to close out a series and not letting his team think it’s over if it does go to Game 7.

“I haven’t figured out the tactics that I’m going to talk about [Monday], but I’m sure we’ll talk about, you know, ‘We’d like to close it out,’ ” Boudreau said.

Boudreau and his players already faced a similarly critical point when they fell into an 0-2 series deficit after an undisciplined Game 2. Boudreau had to be firm with his message, and it’s been a turning point in the series.

“We were just being dumb,” Boudreau said. “We were trying really hard but we were just all over the place, trying to do too much. That’s when they started coming out with the [mind-set of hit the] reset button and breathe and take it easy. I don’t know if that’s any of the reason why we’ve been successful the last three [games], but it certainly made it easier on the bench.”

There are enough new players on that bench such as forwards David Perron, Ryan Garbutt, Jamie McGinn and defenseman Kevin Bieksa that it is a different Ducks team. Those three forwards have scored four goals in a balanced attack that has seen 11 players score 16 goals, none of whom is Ducks regular-season goal-scoring leader Corey Perry.

“It’s a brand new group this year, and we’ve been through some adversity this year and I think we’re much stronger and really know what to do in these situations,” Lindholm said.

Lindholm agreed that the Ducks won Game 5 without their best game, and that it will take a much stronger performance to end Game 6 with a handshake line.

Last season the Ducks played a solid Game 6 against Chicago, only to let a few minutes get away from them in a loss. It was Nate Thompson’s first season with the Ducks, and he had returned from a shoulder injury to help Anaheim get that far.

“You never really want to dwell on what happened last year, but you definitely can learn from it,” Thompson said. “Game 7s are fun and it’s Game 7. But when you have a chance to close out a series in six games and you’re up, why not? I think you’ve got to take advantage of the opportunity.”

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