NASHVILLE, Tenn. — As the minutes dripped off the clock in the third period on Sunday afternoon at Bridgestone Arena, the Vancouver Canucks seemed soundly defeated.

The Nashville Predators had controlled the entirety of Game 4, outside of one wonderful set play that Vancouver executed to open the scoring in the first period.

When Nashville scored early in the third frame to make it 3-1 off the not-distinctively-kicking feet of Filip Forsberg, padding its one-goal lead, the game felt over.

When, despite leading by a pair of goals, the Predators continued to pummel Vancouver, playing most of the final frame in the offensive end of the rink and controlling the game ably, the Game 4 loss felt both inevitably and incredibly frustrating.

Even when Brock Boeser capitalized off of a rebound late in the third and scored the 3-2 goal, it seemed, in the moment, more like a dead cat bounce than the start of something unforgettable.

That’s playoff hockey, though. A game, a series, can flip in an instant. Blink and you might miss it.

With the clock ticking down inexorably and about 10 seconds remaining, the puck was rimmed hard around the wall to the right point where Quinn Hughes was waiting. Hughes is a left-handed shooter, and gathering the puck on your off-side under pressure isn’t easy, particularly with hard pressure coming.

This is Hughes we’re talking about, however, and he made a difficult play look remarkably easy.

Hughes faked as if he were going to take the puck on his backhand, as a left-handed defender typically would, then at the last moment he pivoted, tapped the puck in the air with the heel of his stick to help it settle and gathered it on his forehand.

It was a subtle play, but a special one. And when Hughes quickly hit the breaks after that little hesitation move, it was enough to send Gustav Nyquist, closing hard, flying past him. Hughes stepped neatly down the half wall before feeding Elias Pettersson in the high slot.

Now the Predators were outnumbered by two and on their heels. Pettersson looked shot for a split second, drawing a checker up high, and then deferred to J.T. Miller. Miller has taken over this series and he perfectly threaded a downhill slap pass toward traffic at the net front.

The puck missed the sticks of Conor Garland and Boeser in the slot, missed Ryan O’Reilly’s stick as the Predators centre attempted to prevent a deflection, and missed Roman Josi who sold out for the potential game-winning shot block. The puck had eyes and got all the way to Nashville netminder Juuse Saros, who couldn’t control the rebound.

The area around the Predators’ net turned into pure chaos. Saros, now isolated down low, attempted to bat the puck beyond Boeser and Garland in the slot, but Boeser was quicker and deflected the puck back toward the net. Vancouver’s 40-goal scorer stretched out on his backhand, directing the puck softly on net, but Saros, sprawling, turned the first attempt away desperately with his stick.

However, Boeser, in control as the madness swirled around him, gathered the puck behind the net, made a quick move to get the puck back to his forehand and shot from a tricky angle. Saros, prone, was powerless to stop it. The shot tucked just inside the far post and with 6.2 seconds remaining. Suddenly, the score was level 3-3.

This was pure hockey magic. A series of sharp fakes and incredible skill that stacked up to produce an incredible game-tying goal in the dying minutes of Game 4, a game in which the Canucks were rather soundly outplayed.

This is what it’s all about.

When Vancouver put the game away swiftly in the overtime period, their robbery of a win was secured. They’d scored three goals to seize victory from the jaws of defeat in gobsmacking fashion. It was a pure smash-and-grab, with game-winning goal scorer Elias Lindholm driving the getaway car.

And yet the most telling commentary on the Canucks’ miraculous Game 4 comeback over the Nashville Predators on Sunday evening came from a clearly elated Miller, who began his postgame availability by noting that the stunning comeback represented “a pretty special moment for our group … we’ve showed a lot of ‘no quit.’”

GO DEEPER

How Canucks shocked the world to take stranglehold lead vs. Predators: 5 takeaways

Miller was then asked what the incredible turn of events in the third period meant for Vancouver.

“It’s eight and a half hours of flying time,” was Miller’s immediate and business-like response. “Seriously. It’s a big game and a huge win.”

What we had all just witnessed was outrageous, but Miller’s answer was revealing. It was the answer of a player who’s focused on the long game.

The Canucks lead the Predators 3-1 in this opening-round Stanley Cup playoff series now. They’re one game away from advancing to the second round, but they haven’t accomplished anything just yet.

What they’ve earned so far is a lot of admiration for the guts and heart shown to keep competing in the face of preposterously long odds. More materially, they’ve earned the right to play on Tuesday night in Game 5 with an opportunity to advance at home.

This is what Miller was talking about.

Win that game on Tuesday night and Vancouver can avoid the lengthy return trip to Nashville. Which matters, especially given the extent to which this Canucks team appears to be hanging on by a thread.

The extra hours logged in the air add up when no one else in the West faces such an arduous potential first-round travel schedule. Just ask any member of the 2011 Canucks Stanley Cup Final team about making the return trip to Nashville for Game 6, and they’ll tell you just how significantly it loomed as the club’s playoff run extended into a second month of demanding, physical, balls-to-the-wall hockey.

It looms especially large for this Canucks team at the moment.

Although Arturs Silovs stepped up, looked calm and cool in net and made the saves that gave Vancouver a chance to come back on Sunday afternoon, the Canucks have already used three goaltenders in this series.

With both their regular starter and backup goaltender banged up, the Canucks utilized their American League tandem in net in Game 4. Casey DeSmith is poised to be an option for Game 5, but attrition is already being felt between Vancouver’s pipes in this series.

It’s also notable on the Vancouver back end. Not only did Tyler Myers leave Game 4 momentarily late in the first period when a deflected puck struck him square in the visor, but Hughes is playing a prescribed role by his usual workhorse standard.

The usually elusive Hughes is taking a whole whack of punishment from Predators forecheckers in this series, with Canucks coach Rick Tocchet noting postgame on Sunday that he’s “getting run.”

In the first period on Sunday, Hughes took a double hit from two Predators forwards. He appeared to be in significant discomfort on the Canucks bench afterward, doubled over and speaking with trainers. He then missed a turn in Vancouver’s blue-line rotation.

Through 40 minutes of Game 4, Hughes had played the sixth-most minutes among Canucks defenders. That’s a massive departure from Vancouver’s standard operating procedure.

Thankfully, the captain was able to rally. Despite the physical targeting, Hughes dug deep and logged more than half of the available minutes in the third period as Vancouver chased the game.

Quinn Hughes set up Elias Lindholm for the overtime winner, but his ability to control the game has seemed somewhat limited. (Steve Roberts / USA Today)

Showing remarkable grit, Hughes somehow found enough in the tank to help set up the crucial game-tying goal with the incredible play that faked out Nyquist and started the scoring sequence that Boeser ultimately finished.

Hughes’ toughness is commendable and shouldn’t be doubted, but the sheer amount of hits he’s absorbing seems unsustainable — both for his durability and for Vancouver’s chances of advancing beyond the first round.

And the best way to limit those hits is to end the series as quickly as possible.

Especially because it seems the twin impact of Hughes’ limited minutes and, perhaps, limited effectiveness at the moment shaped the five-on-five dynamic of Games 3 and 4.

It doesn’t seem like a coincidence, for example, that Nashville began generating scoring chances off the rush in bunches, including Nyquist’s 2-1 goal, when Hughes’ minutes were limited in the second frame.

Vancouver is at its best when Hughes is regularly warping the environment of the game. When he’s a puck-dominant one-man breakout machine. When he’s playing like the planet’s best defender, which is what he’s been all season.

As Vancouver got bogged down territorially in Nashville this weekend, despite its back-to-back wins, Hughes’ ability to control the game, one of the fundamental coefficients in this club’s winning equation, seemed at least somewhat limited.

These are the stakes that lie ahead for Vancouver.

For all that has gone wrong for the Canucks in this series — from Pettersson’s struggles to the lack of supporting offence to the rash of goaltending injuries to the copious, hard hits that Hughes has sustained — Vancouver is in firm control.

Miller and Boeser have led the way as this team has impressively overcome a classically Canucks list of tough breaks. The dynamic duo at the top of the lineup has come up big, regularly picking its teeth with Saros and Predators defenders.

Their offensive dominance has permitted the Canucks to find a way to will themselves to victory with a pair of come-from-behind efforts in Games 1 and 4. Not to mention a Game 3 victory in which they managed just 12 total shots on goal but scored on two of those 12, thanks to Boeser and Miller’s ruthless execution.

Whatever they have lacked in style points at the midway point of this series they’ve made up for with stellar results. Although, as Game 4 reminded us, a game or a series can flip in an instant.

There’s one more game for Vancouver to win. If the flow of this weekend’s game is any indication, it may be the hardest win to come by.

Which is why, even though the Canucks have earned three opportunities to push the Predators off the cliff and out of the postseason, the first of those opportunities looms largest.

Win Game 5 and you might buy some banged-up Canucks players some extra time to rest before the second round.

Win Game 5 and you duck the eight-and-a-half hour, 6,500-kilometre return flight to Nashville for Game 6.

Win Game 5 and this team will be somewhere no Canucks team has gone since 2011: to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs with fans in the arena to witness it.

(Top photo: Steve Roberts / USA Today)