Avs Game 6 Grades: Goalie'd

Pierre-Edouard Bellemare – C

Very low-event performance. His best shift was arguably the penalty kill shift late in the third period where he aggressively attacked the puck in the neutral zone and forced Anaheim back before going ham on the forecheck. Offensively, Bellemare is not remotely dangerous right now.

Bowen Byram – B-

Lacked the highlight-reel plays from the last game but he steadied it out quite a bit. Great shot metrics and the staff is quickly building trust in him. The penalties are a minor blip on the radar but one he can’t allow continuing on a regular basis.

Matt Calvert – C+

He’s the ultimate try-hard and he gets a free pass from a lot of angles simply because it looks like he’s doing everything he can and you know he is. He’s involved in some offense but not much of it very dangerous and he never came all that close to finishing anything off tonight. Lots of pressure on the PK though. Strong work there.

J.T. Compher – D

There were signs of life. He made a nice play to Saad for a two-on-one that somehow went through Gibson’s five-hole and into the corner. The rest of the night was too much of the same. I liked the effort better but Compher is beyond moral victories. He needs to start producing meaningful results.

Joonas Donskoi – D

Donskoi looked like he had the old Jamie McGinn puck clock over his head tonight. Every time he got it, that clock would appear with less than two seconds remaining and he would panic and move the puck as his life depended on it. Spoiler alert: it did not in fact depend on it.

Samuel Girard – B+

Girard continues to be very good this year. He’s rock solid and made a brilliant cross-ice pass to Burakovsky that could have easily been a goal. Frankly, it should have been but, you know, John Gibson.

Conor Timmins – C

I didn’t have a strong problem with his game here but he’s simply not making a difference on the ice. He nearly had his first NHL goal in the third period and that would have been a massive lift for both him and the Avs. It didn’t happen and right now Timmins is still a lot more potential than reality. Given some of the problems Colorado’s third-pairing guys have had in recent games, Timmins having a quiet night and strong shot metrics is a fine result.

Philipp Grubauer – B

Not much he can do on the two goals against and he certainly isn’t the guy in charge of keeping the number of shots against him as low as they were. He was essentially a non-factor but had to watch his counterpart arguably still two points.

Tyson Jost – C-

All the process talk continues this year but with the added benefit of him looking great on the PK. He did that again tonight and even drew a penalty to stop a PK in its tracks. That’s a good development. His complete and utter lack of danger on offense is all too familiar.

Nazem Kadri – D

He lost track of Rakell on the game-winning goal and that’s on him. Offensively, I thought we saw a whole lot more jump and competency than we’ve seen from him most of this year. He had a great scoring chance that he shot right into Gibson’s chest but two days ago he wasn’t even getting that shot off, so progress, I guess? There’s still so much more for him to give. So much more. He’s too important to Colorado’s success for him to continue to struggle the way he has.

Andre Burakovsky – C

I didn’t notice him much at all in his return from injury. He had the one-timer from Girard that was stopped by Gibson but it certainly could’ve been a more competitive shot. Beyond that, he wasn’t much of a threat.

Gabriel Landeskog – A-

Quieter game compared to his linemates but he was still great. He’s getting the minus here because of the penalty he took late in the third period. I thought it was a nonsense call so I don’t want to be too harsh on it but it came immediately after the Avs scored and made it 2-1 and that took the wind out of the comeback sails.

Nathan MacKinnon – A

He was awesome again. He hit one post and was robbed by Gibson on two other high-quality chances. He was whiskers from a three-point night.

Cale Makar – A

He was an absolute mad man in this one but still is sitting on zero goals for the season. He beat Gibson cleanly twice only to find the crossbar. His shot metrics were legitimately dominant. He was one of the best players in this game.

Valeri Nichushkin – B

This is what I’m talking about from Big Val. I liked a whole lot more of his overall impact in this one. He still didn’t manage any shots on goal but I didn’t think the offense completely died on his stick. When he’s moving his feet like he was tonight, he is a physical force. I’d love for him to continue getting some PK looks.

Greg Pateryn – C

There were no bad penalties in this one and his shot metrics aren’t problematic. I saw some people get on him for the second goal but it was a perfect pass from Getzlaf through Colorado’s defense. He was a little slow in rotating over to pick Getzlaf up but I’m not sure there’s anything else you’d ask him to do differently in that situation.

Mikko Rantanen – A

He looks like one of the most physically dominant players in the league right now, maybe even more so than MacKinnon. He’s more or less doing whatever the hell he wants and he showcased his wicked backhander tonight with the Avs’ only goal.

Brandon Saad – D+

Sigh. I don’t even know what to say about Saad anymore other than they have to just keep waiting and hoping he figures it out. Right now he’s been a huge bust and tonight wasn’t much better. He had a clean look on a two-on-one and he tried to go five-hole on Gibson. It kind of worked because the puck made it through but it slid harmlessly into the corner. That was about it on offense from him.

Devon Toews – B+

Scary incident with the skate coming up high on him in the first period. He returned and was solid from there. His ES play is outpacing his contributions to the second PP unit but that was always going to slow down. He’s finding a real groove next to Cale Makar and that pairing is starting to dominate a bit.