That defeat came in a shootout made it harder to accept.
"You can flip a coin in that case," Clague said. "There's so many skilled players on each team, anyone could have scored. It was tough to see it end like that, such a good hockey game, but I think we're just going to use that as motivation this year."
When Canada begins the 2018 tournament against Finland on Tuesday (4 p.m. ET; NHLN, TSN, RDS), the returning players will have the disappointment of a year ago fresh in their minds.
"It's a little bit of unfinished business for the returning guys after experiencing that," Clague said. "I think it's definitely a little bit more drive and motivation. Obviously, it's there already but there's that extra little bit."
Three players (forwards Maxime Comtois, Alex Formenton and Rob Thomas) will be eligible to return in 2019, meaning it will be the final opportunity for the majority of Canada's roster to win a gold medal. Since winning gold five consecutive years from 2005-09, Canada has won it once in the past eight years, when they defeated Russia 5-4 in 2015.
Clague said the experience last year will leave the returning players more confident this time around.
"It's like anything, when you do a year of something and especially this tournament, it's top caliber, best players in the world, playing in that tournament brings returning guys a lot of experience," Clague said. "Just how to handle ourselves every day and different situations within the games, I'm just going to take what I learned last year and use it in situations in this tournament."