Forty-seven seconds into Saturday night in Nashville, Miro Heiskanen had given the Dallas Stars the lead they never found on opening night. By the first intermission, that lead was gone, the Predators had scored twice on the power play, and the Stars were staring at a 2-1 deficit that held to the final horn at Bridgestone Arena.
The loss dropped Dallas to 0-2-0 after a 4-0 home blank against St. Louis on Friday. The scoreboard changed. The early-period problem did not. Captain Jamie Benn made that the story after the game, according to NHL.com's Kurt Dusterberg.
"Obviously, we're not where we need to be," Benn said. "(We've had) slow starts. First periods have been terrible. It's on the players in here."
He added that the standard has to be 60 minutes from the drop of the puck and that, for this group, the starts have been unacceptable. That is not a coach soft-pedaling a back-to-back. That is the captain putting the first 20 minutes on the room after two nights of watching the opponent dictate the opening frame.
Early lead, early unraveling
Heiskanen's goal at 0:47 of the first looked like a corrective. After Juuse Saros stopped a net-front scramble, Mikko Rantanen found Heiskanen in the right face-off circle for a blocker-side wrist shot, NHL.com reported. Dallas had the first punch Saturday. Nashville answered with structure and special teams.
Steven Stamkos tied it at 4:46 on the power play, one-timing Ryan O'Reilly's backhand feed from the left circle for his 625th career goal. Nils Hoglander put the Predators ahead 2-1 at 15:49 when Jack Ahcan's point shot deflected off Hoglander's skate at the crease. Two Dallas penalties. Two Nashville power-play goals. One first period that mirrored Friday's slow start more than it erased it.
Coach Glen Gulutzan told NHL.com the Stars did not get going in the first, spent time trying to slow Nashville's momentum, and only began to find their game around the midpoint of the second. In the third, he said, they played better but could not find the equalizer.
