Joe Rexrode

USA TODAY Sports

NASHVILLE -- Even in the very apparent afterglow of another towel-waving night at Bridgestone Arena, David Poile sat in his office Tuesday afternoon and considered what the “hockey gods” nearly did to his franchise.

They crossed his mind after Predators goalie Pekka Rinne slipped and fell in the third period of Monday’s Game 6 of the Western Conference semifinals, leading to the San Jose Sharks goal that threatened to end Nashville’s season. The Predators were down 3-2 at the time, but the season continues thanks to a 4-3 overtime win.

“Imagine that being the winning goal and ending the series,” said Poile, the Predators’ only general manager in their 19-season history. “We don’t even bring that up today. But that probably would have been the story.”

That it wasn’t explains the afterglow. Team building has been the life of the 66-year-old Poile, even before the 34 years as a GM – the first 15 at Washington – which trail only Jack Adams (35) and Glen Sather (35) in NHL history.

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It goes back to his late father, Hockey Hall of Famer Bud Poile, general manager of expansion franchises Philadelphia (1967) and Vancouver (1970). In Philadelphia, Bud laid the foundation for two Stanley Cups. So it’s not just that the Predators are now deeper than they’ve ever been, preparing to play Game 7 on Thursday at San Jose for a spot in the Western finals.

It’s all the little things Poile has seen on the way, things he often doesn’t see, things that suggest this team could do more. Take the goal rookie Viktor Arvidsson scored to win Game 6 in overtime.

This team has a high-level goaltender who is playing like it, arguably the best quartet of defensemen in the league and emerging forwards such as Colin Wilson and James Neal. Young players such as Ryan Johansen and Filip Forsberg are the future – and the present if this team is going to keep playing.

But the Arvidsson goal, and the reaction to it, came with championship markings.

“You need to get what I call these special plays from your secondary players,” Poile said. “Arvidsson gets the goal and I mean, you could see our team was so happy for him. Happy we won, yes, but happy for him.”

Nashville has a roster that can compete with anyone. In the NHL, that can still mean scrapping to get into the playoffs, then playing inconsistently during them. Both are true of this team.

But the intangibles were unmistakable in three elimination games won. Before dismissing team chemistry as a corny concept at the pro level, remember that some of these guys believed in Santa Claus in this century.

“Just throughout these games, we’ve had guys in this room make some real character plays,” said Johansen, who at 23 is one of those guys. “Whether it’s (defensive) zone, our goalie, offensive zone, blocking shots. You know, it’s a lot of fun. We haven’t achieved anything, in saying this. And we feel like we have a group that can do something special.”

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A year ago, Poile remembers saying after double-overtime and triple-overtime losses to Chicago, the killers in a series the Predators often controlled: “Really?”

“You know, and they go win the Stanley Cup,” Poile said of the Blackhawks. “Were they better than us? I guess they’re better than us, they’ve won three Stanley Cups. We haven’t won.”

But they could. Poile knows it. Crazier Cup runs have happened.

And if this team plays its best – starting with Rinne – and avoids “hockey god” wrath, it will be past one of the favorites left to win it. Monday’s stirring response to so much adversity made that kind of a Thursday easier to imagine on Tuesday.

“You’re catching me on a high today that we won,” Poile said. “The story is really good today. It’s a phenomenal story if we continue.”

And then he paused.

“I wish we were doing this interview Thursday night after the game.”

Joe Rexrode writes for The (Nashville) Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network.