I had never before seen such a stark difference between two teams as I saw in that OT. The Preds played franticly, looked disorganized, forced plays, tried to cycle and tried to make 1-on-1, 1-on-2 and even 1-on-3 moves, whereas the Stars played calmly and smoothly, easily set up in the zone, made safe passes to open teammates and, generally, played keep-away from the Preds. The former was a perfect example of what not to do in 3-on-3 OT, while the latter was a perfect example of what to do.
It's clear that the Preds still don't have a clue how to play 3-on-3. That was excusable in October and, maybe, November, but it's simply inexcusable now. Most across the NHL, including fans, have a pretty good idea by now how to be successful in 3-on-3. If the Preds were just having trouble executing or lacked the talent to be successful with it, it'd be more understandable, but they're not even trying to play 3-on-3 the right way, which suggests that they don't even know what that is.
We can get upset with the players, but this is really on the coaching staff. It's on them to impress upon the players the importance of safe plays and playing keep-away. I don't think that this staff is doing that, but, even if they are, it's their responsibility to get after the players for not doing it. If Neal doesn't follow your instruction and does 1-on-3 moves in OT, anyways, then he shouldn't get to play OT. If Forsberg is also not going to stop trying to beat defenders, then he shouldn't play OT, either. That may sound crazy, but it'd be better to have worse players, even bottom-6 players, who follow directions and play 3-on-3 the right way than to keep having your star players playing it the wrong way (which, as we see, gets you a 1-10 record).
