Predators coach says the best team didn't win in Canucks playoff series
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Nashville Predators head coach Andrew Brunette seems to be having some trouble accepting his team’s playoff fate.
The Vancouver Canucks recently dismissed the Predators in a hard-fought six-game opening-round series.
Brunette has a ton of experience at the NHL level. He’s played 1,110 NHL games, including 49 in the playoffs, and coached 157 NHL games, including 16 in the playoffs. He said that this series was unique in his experience, as he feels like the best team lost.
“I’ve gone through so many series and I’m a big believer, the best of seven, the best team wins and I’ve left many, many of them, almost all of them, where I believe that,” started Brunette today at the team’s year-end press conference. “Even when you don’t win, the best team wins.”
“I don’t feel that this time and there’s only one other time in my career I felt [like that], we deserved a little better. It didn’t happen.”
The coach felt like his team was better but didn’t get the results they were owed. No matter how he feels, it’s the Canucks who are still playing and the Predators who are looking at tee times.
The two teams were very evenly matched throughout the series. The margin of victory was a total of just one goal as the Canucks outscored the Predators 13-12 over the course of the six games.
Both teams had similar levels of success on special teams and had good goaltending. It would be hard to say that one team was decisively better than the other.
The Canucks did out-chance the Predators 129-98 at five-on-five and controlled more than 56% of the high-danger chances per NaturalStatTrick.
The two teams are in different divisions, so it’s unlikely this is a budding rivalry. However, comments like Brunette’s today will contribute to a fierce atmosphere when these teams meet next season.
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