At some point, they can only kick this can so far down the road until they'll have to kick the bucket.
Saturday was one of those weird days where the Stars did so many things right, and yet simply found a way to mess up in a few key areas. Dallas finished with 38 shots on goal and had 22 scoring chances, according to coach Rick Bowness. That was among the most on the season, and yet it didn't help early against a Nashville team that is among the leakiest in the NHL and had allowed 15 goals in its previous three games.
"We are creating scoring chances. We missed open nets; we missed breakaways," Bowness said. "There were 22 scoring chances to their 11, and it was a 3-3 hockey game."
Veteran Nashville goal Pekka Rinne turned away some great shots, but Dallas also missed the net, or flubbed a shot, or simply failed to show poise at a key moment.
In the meantime, Nashville capitalized on a first period power play when Mikael Granlund redirected a Filip Forsberg shot for the first goal of the game at the 15:31 mark of the first period. It was just the third shot on goal for the Predators at the time. A minute later, Calle Jarnkrok made it 2-0 and the Stars were behind the eight ball.
Another power-play goal made it 3-0 after two periods, and Dallas was once again in need of a patented comeback. As they have done so many times in the past two seasons, the Stars got it. Radek Faksa powered in a shot to give the Stars life, Joe Pavelski followed with another power play goal, and then rookie Jason Robertson came up big to tie the game with his fourth goal of the season at the 19:03 mark of the third period.