Preds Need to Build on Second Half of Game 3

Less like the first half, more like the second half.
Hockey isn't a sport officially divided into two equal parts, but for the Predators in Game 3, it might as well have been.
Preds Head Coach Peter Laviolette called the first period of the Avalanche's 5-3 win "one of the worst" he's seen his team play in a long time. Blake Comeau, Gabriel Bourque and Nathan MacKinnon combined to put the home team up 4-0 in the game's first 25 minutes on Monday night.

Ryan Johansen gave the Predators life with a power-play goal just past the midway point of the contest, and then everything started looking a little better.
Nashville outshot Colorado 14-8 in the third period and scored twice (the Avalanche were awarded an empty-net goal at 18:24). Most noticeably, the visitors won a string of faceoffs in the offensive zone, and to the naked eye, looked like the better team.
The advanced analytics support that theory as well, with the Preds putting forth a shot attempt percentage of 59.38 percent in the third period (
according to Natural Stat Trick
) after a pedestrian first half in Game 3.
Less like the first half, more like the second half.
"For the second half of the game, I thought we showed up a lot better," Preds defenseman Mattias Ekholm said. "We have to start better. That's been the problem the whole series. We need to try and not let them get the lead and maybe us play with the lead for once. I think we battled, we stuck up for ourselves and our teammates in the third period, especially, and we got some chances and goals. So there's some positives there, but everyone in this room knows we can be a lot better."

The positive signs are there, now the execution needs to follow.
"Just go into the game prepared to play our best hockey; as individuals [we] need to prepare to bring our best individual game, which correlates to our team and having team success," Johansen said. "We need everyone in this room. We've needed everyone in this room all year long to have success, so nothing changes."
The Predators finished with the NHL's best record during the regular season in large part because of their ability to quickly bounce back from poor performances.

"In the regular season, too, we never went off the road for too long," Laviolette said. "We never went too far and we never went too long off the road, so that's a good thing. We play every other day, so we know we have a chance to fix things, get a sweat today and move forward."