Ducks' Perry: Game 7 loss 'hard to swallow'

For the fourth straight year, the Anaheim Ducks choked in Game 7 on home ice.

The club came up short in its first-round series against the Nashville Predators, leaving many visibly distraught, especially forward Corey Perry.

"No (way to explain it), I have nothing for you," said Perry. "It's hard to swallow right now."

"Not the way we wanted to start, but second and third I thought we threw everything at them, everything we had," said Perry. "A bounce here, a bounce there and it could be a different story."

Not helping the team's chances was the fact that the 30-year-old went goalless in seven games.

"We could have used him, but I know one thing - he left it all out there today," coach Bruce Boudreau said, according to Puck Daddy's Jen Neale. "He tried his ass off. I mean, it's not easy to score goals. We would have loved one in the third. He had five or six really good chances, but he was snakebit the whole series. It was tough, but it wasn't for lack of his effort tonight."

Perry finished the series with four assists and a team-worst minus-7 rating in seven games.