Stars and their leaders fail test in loss to Predators

DALLAS — So much for the good feelings.

After winning five straight games, including three against the Central Division, the Dallas Stars laid an egg in a 5-2 loss to the Nashville Predators on Tuesday.

On a night when the Predators could have had an excusable lackluster showing playing the second half of a back-to-back, the Stars were the team that looked lethargic and uninterested.

The second period was particularly embarrassing.

After back-to-back fights the Predators scored four straight goals, chased Ben Bishop from the game, and had a pair of relative no-name offensive players light a spark.

First Cody McLeod, who was more interested in fighting Stephen Johns the entire game than playing hockey, scored into an empty net after an unlucky bounce for the Stars. That zapped all the energy out of the building, and Pontus Aberg effectively muted the building when he made it 3-0 less two minutes later.

Nashville’s effective power play pushed the lead to 4-0, but the backbreaker came when Austin Watson and Calle Jarnkrok outworked all six Stars on the ice and pieced together a shorthanded goal.

It was a frustrating day going all the way back to the morning skate for Stars coach Ken Hitchcock.

“We had no energy this morning, and we had less tonight. So I’m not sure why,” Hitchcock said. “Something we’re going to have to think about, but we did not handle it well at all.”

A team typically follows it’s leaders, and the Stars best players were amongst the biggest culprits on Tuesday.

Stars captain Jamie Benn had one his worst games of the the season and his ill-advised cross-checking penalty in the first period immediately led to a 1-0 Nashville lead.

“A tough night,” Benn said. “Starting with myself, probably a bad penalty and they scored on the power play.”

While Dallas played a poor game, I have to disagree with Hitchcock after he said Nashville didn’t play that well.

The Predators played the ideal road game and managed their energy well in a back-to-back. They played a simple, yet-effective game in the first period and cashed in when they needed to on the power play.

Once they built a larger lead in the second period the Predators played to the score and limited quality scoring chances against — two philosophies that Hitchcock often preaches to his own team. And while the Stars may have racked up 46 total shots, Juuse Saros didn’t have to make many tremendous saves to keep his team ahead.

“I looked at the shot clock and I think they had 45-some shots or whatever that was and I didn’t feel like it was that kind of game,” Predators defenseman Mattias Ekholm said. “I felt like we kept them on the outside, not that many quality chances. They had some quality chances, I’m not saying that, but I thought we limited them to opportunities on the outside.”

Overall it was a missed opportunity for Dallas. This was a chance to measure themselves against a team with legitimate Stanley Cup aspirations, and they came up short.