Avs Game 30 Grades: Can't win 'em all

Mark Barberio – C

Barbs was fine tonight. Nothing special overall, and the penalty, as much as Gaudreau embellished it, was a hold. He nearly hit Rantanen backdoor for a goal late in the third but the entire Flames team laid on the puck in the crease.

Pierre Edouard Bellemare – B-

Solid in his own end, and kept the puck down low at the other end for the most part. His face-off win played a key role in Nichushkin’s goal in the second period, but he also lost the face-off just before the Flames scored on the power play. Bednar put him out there to win the face-off in overtime and he didn’t, but you get the sentiment behind it.

Andre Burakovsky – C

Had an awesome dash to the net towards the end of the first period that went off the crossbar, and other than that, wasn’t able to get a puck on net the rest of the night. He got a little too far wide on the overtime winner and got burned, but I didn’t like him pulling up just seconds before instead of taking it to the net.

Matt Calvert – B

It was nice to have Calvert back in this one, and he picked up an assist on MacKinnon’s goal and finished with very strong shot metrics on the evening. Just another night in the life of Matt Calvert.

Ian Cole – B+

Another night, another assist for Cole, who just picks up points on the regular now. This one came from just dumping the puck out of his own end and watching MacKinnon do his thing. Looked to be in some pain in the third after blocking a shot, but came back to finish.

J.T. Compher – C

Picked up an assist on the opening goal with a nice bounce pass off the boards to Donskoi, but was somewhat invisible the rest of the evening. Finished with zero shots on goal. Is he just turning into a playmaker at this point? Goal production is way down, but assists are way up. He’s also benefiting from some nice percentages, as he has the highest PDO on the team.

Joonas Donskoi – A

Love his ability to create space with the puck, and that’s exactly what he did to delay for Graves to enter the zone on the opening goal. The snipe to send it to overtime was a thing of beauty as well, as he pulled the shot in close to change the angle at the last moment.

Pavel Francouz – D

I’m not sure if you pin this one on the goaltender or not, but five goals on 33 shots are not great percentages. The one I liked the least was probably the fourth goal, as Francouz didn’t even appear to move and was committed to a shot from a poor angle, not anticipating the pass. Bednar described his performance as “sub-par”.

Samuel Girard – D

Without Makar, Girard was the big puck mover on the Avs defense, and it did not go well. Multiple turnovers with the puck leaving the zone, including almost getting Donskoi killed in the second. He launched the puck into Z’s chest just prior to the disastrous third goal against and struggled to run the top PP unit with any efficiency. Also jumped on the ice and touched the puck for the too many men penalty.

Ryan Graves – A

Far and away the Avs best defender in this one, and picks up yet another goal just by reading the play. Also made a nice physical play at the blueline before MacKinnon’s goal in the third.

Vladislav Kamenev – C

Kamenev didn’t touch the ice in the third period outside of serving the penalty and stepping on after. I didn’t mind him most of the night, and he had a really nice shift in the second period where he got a couple of shots on net. The fourth line did well tonight.

Tyson Jost – B

Really liked Jost in this one, as he was tenacious all night long in the offensive zone, and even got to play a good bit in the third period because of it. I don’t love him on the power play overall, but a good night at even strength for him.

Gabriel Landeskog – D

Really felt like Landeskog was fighting the puck a lot tonight, with some uncharacteristic turnovers, particularly at the offensive and defensive blue lines. He still had his chances, but that line had to be broken up because of struggles in their own end.

Nathan MacKinnon – A

I felt MacK was rather pedestrian in the first two periods, particularly defensively. That defensive struggle even came in the third period as well on the Flames goals. But then he took off, and willed the Avs into overtime. In OT, he tried to do a little too much on a two on one and it ended up costing the Avs at the other end.

Valeri Nichushkin – B+

Another goal, and on this one he just embarrassed Giordano in front of the net and made him look like half a man. Just compare the celebration from his first goal to this one, and you can see a guy with some growing confidence in himself.

Matt Nieto – B

Nieto always picks up these assists on very subtle plays, like the one tonight where he waits an extra second to draw a guy in before sending it back to Graves. No issues with his game tonight, other than a near miss on a breakaway.

Mikko Rantanen – D+

Mikko, like Landy, was up and down, but he had a near moment of brilliance as he embarrassed Hanifin with some angles in the second period for a nice shot on net. Other than that, a relatively pedestrian performance from Rantanen overall. He’s looked slightly rusty after coming out of the gates hot in his first game back.

Calle Rosen – D

The fourth Flames goal was not a good look for Rosen, and tonight, he had his chance to play on the power play and didn’t do anything with it, fumbling the puck and even just blowing a tire out of nowhere at the blueline.

Nikita Zadorov – D

Z ended up a minus-three on the evening, but the second minus, on the Flames third goal, was really the only one he could have done a lot more on I felt. Girard put the puck in his chest and he just tried to get it out but it ended up on the Flames’ stick. He got caught down low in OT, but when you have a chance at an odd-man rush, you take chances then. I thought his best play of the night was not giving in to Tkachuk in the third period when it was 4-2 Flames. He stayed disciplined and the Avs were able to come back and get a point.