from Joe Rexrode of The Tennessean,
Every previous Predators season has ended weeks or months short of the culmination of the NHL season, the golf clubs out of garages and put to use long before the Stanley Cup came out of its box in some far-away arena.
On Sunday night, it was in Bridgestone Arena, which is pretty remarkable when you think about it. But this probably isn’t the time for that, not now, not after it appeared in the most painful of circumstances for the Predators and their fans. Not with Sidney Crosby lifting it above his head after leading the Pittsburgh Penguins to a championship-clinching 2-0 win over the Predators in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final.
Not after the way it all went down, a ridiculous officiating error costing the Predators a 1-0 lead early in the second period. The official first goal came 37 minutes later, the game winner from former Predator Patric Hornqvist with 1:35 to play.
A wacky bounce, a shot off the back of Pekka Rinne and that was it – an empty netter for Carl Hagelin followed, then a wild pile-up on the ice for the guys in the white uniforms when the horn blew. It was numbness everywhere else in the building. The Stanley Cup stays with Pittsburgh, the NHL’s first repeat champion since the Detroit Red Wings of 1997 and ’98.
"It just feels wrong right now – it's tough to accept," said Rinne, who put in a night of work that normally would have produced a convincing win.
“It’s hard to describe," Predators defenseman P.K. Subban said of the feeling afterward. "When you dream about lifting the Stanley Cup as a young kid – and the dream’s happened probably about a million times for most of us – being that close, being two games away, 120 minutes away from lifting the Stanley Cup, it sucks."
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