Razor-Thin Margins Were the Difference in Predators' First-Round Loss to Canucks

The Nashville Predators' season ended Friday night with a 1-0 loss to the Vancouver Canucks in a Game 6 that that mirrored the entire first-round playoff series. The teams went toe-to-toe for 60 minutes and fought for every inch of ice, but a late goal from Pius Suter was all it would take for Vancouver to squeak out a win and send the Predators packing.

"One play was going to make the difference," Predators head coach Andrew Brunette said after the game. "And they made the play."

At times, it looked like the Predators were the better team during Game 6. The margin of error was so small for both teams, though, that it was fitting that the series was decided on a single goal in a single moment.

"I thought we played extremely well," Brunette said. "[The Canucks] are a really good team. Every game basically came down to a small margin, came down to a bounce. Even the (games) we won."

With such a small margin for error throughout the entire series, the Predators knew they controlled their own destiny in Game 6.

“Every time you have a chance to play in the playoffs, you want to make the most of it,” Predators captain Roman Josi said after Game 6. “Just the way we lost tonight and I think just the whole series, we felt like we were in the series. We felt like a lot of times we were also the better team and had our looks. And it stings right now. Not much more you can say, it hurts.”

The loss in Game 6 further magnified Nashville's missed opportunities from earlier in the series. The Predators had leads late in Games 1 and 4, and both times they let the Canucks come back to win.

"There were certainly some missed opportunities earlier in the series," Predators defenseman Ryan McDonagh said. "This [series] is going to hurt; it felt like it was right there for us."

The Predators had moments during the series in which they were the better team, but ultimately, their best wasn't enough to overcome an elite defensive team like the Canucks.

“It’s hockey, at times,” Brunette said. “Sometimes it’s unexplainable. It felt like you’re in a really good place for a lot of those games, and especially our home games. I don’t want to say it’s disappointing, because I thought we played extremely well. They're a really good team, and every game basically came down to a margin, came down to a bounce. Even when we won, it was little things. And you're going to think about it, unfortunately, for the rest of the summer.”

The Canucks excelled at clogging shooting lanes and taking away space, successfully stifling Nashville's biggest scoring threats – Josi, Filip Forsberg, Ryan O'Reilly and Gustav Nyquist, among others. The series may have highlighted Nashville's need for more offensive weapons in order to overcome a suffocating defense like the Canucks', but the Predators did what they could with the assets they had. Vancouver was the better defensive team, and Nashville wasn't opportunistic enough to close the gap.

“I'm very proud of the group,” Brunette said. “I asked them to do some things that were uncomfortable. They went through some adversity, they hung together, they grew together as a group. And once the dust clears and the hurt stops a little bit, I think the players will look back and they'll be pretty proud of what they did and who they did it with and how they did it together.”