Good teams respond to adversity. They embrace the challenge, overcome it and find a way to make up for the mistake.
On Tuesday the Dallas Stars weren’t a good team in a 5-2 loss to the Nashville Predators.
The Predators took a 2-0 lead on a fluky goal by an unlikely player in Cody McLeod 2:48 into the second period. The puck took an odd bounce off Stephen Johns on a dump-in and Ben Bishop, who had been reading the play well before that bounce, was caught out of position when Cody McLeod fired the puck into the empty net.
The Highlander. #Preds | #NSHvsDAL pic.twitter.com/hw7NkfKbFb
— Nashville Predators (@PredsNHL) December 6, 2017
It was a play that the Stars didn’t have to let define them. There was still more than half the game remaining, and with a strong response to an odd bounce they likely could have tired out a team playing it’s second game in less than 24 hours.
But the Predators had the better response.
On the ensuing shift the Stars sustained a bit of offensive zone pressure, and even forced an icing by Nashville, the the Predators still scored less than two minutes later when Pontus Aberg beat Ben Bishop with a wrist shot.
Go get on the board, @PontusAberg. (This is when it was just 3-0 #Preds). #NSHvsDAL pic.twitter.com/AFwgnkj7Qo
— Nashville Predators (@PredsNHL) December 6, 2017
The goal gave Nashville a 3-0 lead and ended Bishop’s night. One minute after seeing their starting goalie get pulled the Stars couldn’t capitalize on a breakaway by Radek Faksa, and the Predators had essentially sealed the victory less than five minutes into middle stanza.
“If you can put the dagger down really deep, it’s tough to get out of it. And I thought we did that,” Predators defenseman Mattias Ekholm said.
Sean O'Connor says
Nashville generates so much of their offense by relying on their forecheck causing turnovers + their powerplay, and we fed into their hands the whole game. Infuriating, because you saw how many chances they had on the rush when they beat the forecheck.
Sean Shapiro says
Nashville played the ideal road game and stuck to their system. Sign of a good team for Predators.