Are the Sharks ready to finish off the Predators in Game 7?

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Joe Thornton gave a one-word answer when asked how he felt the day before Game 7 between the Nashville Predators and his San Jose Sharks at SAP Center.

“Great,” Thornton said, smiling through his big, bushy beard.

Thornton was energetic, full of life and appeared ready to seize the moment two days after the Sharks blew a 2-0 lead and 3-2 lead in Game 6 and failed to close out the Predators. With that loss, the Sharks fell to 1-6 in situations where they could have clinched a series since the last game of the 2013 postseason.

The mantra this year with the Sharks is that this team is different than the groups that have fallen short of expectations, and Thornton still believes this is indeed true.

[Join a Yahoo Daily Fantasy Hockey contest today]

“I like this group of guys. The foundation that we have here I really love,” Thornton said. “If we play our ‘A’ game I like our chances to win.”

Beating the Los Angeles Kings in the first-round of the playoffs was just a step for these Sharks to show they’re a more complete, steelier, stronger team. The next chance comes in Thursday’s Game 7 where San Jose will show they can handle their first elimination situation of the playoffs.

“I think every step you get closer toward your final goal you kind of show this is a good team, it’s a new team, new players, new coaching staff,” Thornton said. “Tomorrow is a great opportunity to show that again.”

So far this round the Sharks have fought perceived bad luck and an inability to close against a feisty Predators team that seems to play their best hockey when they’re close to being ousted.

In San Jose’s Game 4 loss, a Joe Pavelski overtime goal was wiped off the board because of contact with Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne even though it appeared Nashville’s Paul Gaustad pushed Pavelski into Rinne. It was a close call but it went against the Sharks. Nashville won that game in the third overtime to tie the series at 2-2.

In Game 6, the Predators controlled the play, peppering Sharks goaltender Martin Jones with 32 shots on goal to San Jose’s 18. Nashville fired 76 shot attempts towards Jones to San Jose’s 45 at Rinne. Also the Sharks blew leads of 2-0 in the first period and 3-2 late in the third period.

“Game 6 (against Nashville) wasn’t good for us and we had a chance to eliminate them,” Sharks center Logan Couture said. “We have to be hungrier than they are.”

In past games where the Sharks could have moved onto another series, they didn’t really relish in the moment. Especially in 2014 when the Kings came back from down 0-3 to beat San Jose in Game 7. After every loss in that series, the Sharks never saw each next game as a chance to beat LA. Instead there was an impending sense of doom with each goal scored by the Kings.

“You just compete. I think that’s the biggest thing, is just enjoy it, compete, you’ve really got to push through and just play every shift, and understand that you need all the guys to be here so you don’t have to do it yourself,” captain Joe Pavelski said. “You’ve got to use each other, you’ve got to support, you’ve got to just be there for the guys. When you get your chance, you’ve got to be ready for it.”

The Sharks have seen their fair share of playoff struggles in recent history, but really they had one main antagonist in the Kings. San Jose has reached two conference finals with the core of Thornton, Marleau and Pavelski. Five of those six closeout game losses were against Los Angeles, and four of them came in 2014.

The Sharks’ playoff woes aren’t as critical as the Anaheim Ducks’ – a team that went into Game 7 with the Predators having lost three straight Game 7s against three different opponents on home ice.

"I think the belief level's good. We eliminated a very good  LA team that a lot of people picked to win the Cup,” coach Peter DeBoer said. “This is a tough trail. You look around the league, you look at the elimination games going around, the number of Game 7s, how close and how tight the games are. That's this time of year. You have to embrace that. I think our group understands that and is in a good spot."

A win for the Sharks would do more than just continue their path of retribution from playoffs past. It would bring some belief back to a fanbase that’s used to teases from the team this time of year.

The Sharks’ sellout streak is a thing of the past and playoff tickets aren’t as hot a commodity. Even though this group has a new coach and some new faces, a lot of fans see them as the same old Sharks.

Walk through the San Jose airport and, to the eyeball test, there’s more paraphernalia being sold for the NBA's Golden State Warriors – an organization that plays about 40 miles away in Oakland though one that's had an incredible recent run of success – instead of the team that’s just four miles up the freeway.

“I think for them a lot of guys who want to win for (Thornton) or (Pavelski) or (Marleau), they’ve been here so long and been so close. But at the same time they’ve been successful, they’ve been right there,” defenseman Paul Martin said. "It would be different if it’s a team that doesn’t make the playoffs or come close, we wouldn’t be having that conversation. They’ve had some unfortunate losses in the playoffs and it would be something to have a big win for them."

MORE FROM YAHOO HOCKEY

- - - - - - -

Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper