The Avs did adjust after period 1. The Stars were forcing the Avs puckcarrier to choose one side of the ice before the red line, then had two or more guys compressing the space to force weak dump-ins. In the 2nd the Avs countered by sending a pass east-west prior to the red line to hit a guy in stride on the opposite side of the ice. That allowed their transition game to improve dramatically.
Then in the third period with the lead they simplified their game even more by putting less emphasis on transitioning the puck into the OZ with possession, and instead got it deep over and over again. They were in total control for the first half of the third period until the Lehkonen holding penalty and ensuing Dallas PP goal.
The narrative that Bednar doesn't adjust is just silly. He did adjust, and at 5v5 things seemed to work better in the last two periods.
That said, perhaps those adjustments weren't the right ones, or enough, in hindsight. Maybe they should have been more gung-ho in the third to get the second goal instead of playing the clock. But chance-wise they controlled the last two periods at 5v5 so the adjustments did work to an extent.
I also think the choice of lines set the team up to fail and Bednar did little to change that so I'm not absolving Bednar of that. Nelson needs Necas in a big way; he simply isn't a driver and needs someone to feed him the puck in shooting positions to be effective.
