Player grades for the Colorado Avalanche’s fiasco in Tampa Bay.
Sven Andrighetto (C-) – One of the few guys I didn’t think was terrible. He wasn’t good but he also wasn’t an active detriment tonight. Not the kind of game he needed to convince the coaching staff he belongs in the lineup every night.
Tyson Barrie (F) – Holy moly. What happened here? He wasn’t quite as rough as his partner but he was all over the place in a bad way tonight.
Matt Calvert (D) – This line was only kind of bad on a night when the team was terribad. Calvert was almost entirely forgettable, which was a positive on a night like this.
Ian Cole (F-) – There isn’t a low enough grade for the disaster that was Cole’s night tonight. Turnovers, bad defense, mind-boggling decisions. Cole did it all tonight in what was easily his worst game in an Avs uniform since his first preseason game when Avs fans wondered if he was even competent. Tonight, he reminded them of those initial impressions. He was so, so bad. There aren’t enough words to describe how bad. It won’t be hard to bounce back from this utter fiasco.
J.T. Compher (D) – If nothing else, he was literally fighting through the end even when it was a blowout. He’s a feisty dude at all times. He has no chill whatsoever, which is at least entertaining to watch in blowouts.
Samuel Girard (D) – Cole, Barrie, and Johnson got the lion’s share of being on the wrong end of the goals tonight but Girard was sneakily terrible, too. It started from the very beginning of the game and he was just awful. It never really got better, either.
Erik Johnson (D) – You’ll be shocked to read that Johnson was terrible tonight, like all of Colorado’s defense.
Tyson Jost (D+) – Why you hacking at a guy’s hands two minutes into the game? It was a soft call, no doubt, but that’s a silly and avoidable penalty to take.
Vladislav Kamenev (INC) – The best grade of the night and only because he didn’t finish the game due to injury. We’re hoping for the best on an injury update from Kamenev, who looked like he was in significant pain.
Alexander Kerfoot (D) – He’s not even pretending like he’s going to shoot right now. He’s blatantly looking to pass even in the most dangerous of areas. That has to be frustrating for a coaching staff that has been trying to drill a more aggressive mindset into his offensive approach.
Gabriel Landeskog (D) – The top line is not immune to the trash grades of this game. They were terrible, too.
Nathan MacKinnon (D+) – I will give MacKinnon the plus because his goal was deceptive as can be. Normally I think that’s a really soft goal but MacKinnon baited Domingue hard by showing pass until a lightning (har har) release found caught him off guard and gave the Avs their one goal against the Lightning this season.
Patrik Nemeth (D) – Of all the bad defense played tonight, I didn’t notice Nemeth as part of it as much as you’d expect.
Matt Nieto (D) – This line was only kind of bad. I mentioned that, right?
Mikko Rantanen (F) – I actually really did not like Rantanen at all tonight. Blind passes became turnovers and he just wasn’t doing much of the positive that we’ve seen from him so many times this season. He kept his point streak alive, I guess. That’s neat.
Carl Soderberg (D) – One great game in Florida matched by a terrible game in Florida. He did come quite close to scoring his 12th of the season.
Semyon Varlamov (F) – Look, this wasn’t on Varlamov. You watch the goals against and you see he was consistently hung out to dry tonight. The defense in front of him was practice-caliber and Varlamov didn’t stand a chance. But I can’t give a guy who got lit up for five goals anything other than an F. It his job to stop pucks. He didn’t even if he didn’t get any help.
Colin Wilson (D) – The most I saw from Wilson tonight was him skating hard to clear a puck with about four minutes left in the third period. That’s damning.
Nikita Zadorov (D-) – These are the kinds of games where the coaching staff could choose to give some guys extra minutes just to get through the game and be done with it. Instead, Zadorov took a couple of silly penalties to mostly dissuade the staff from giving him more ice.
0 Comments (12 conversations)
Max3390
I came, I saw, I agreed.
As a side note, I’m glad you didn’t go easy on G. Well deserved D tonight for the youngster.
teerav42
No grade for Grubauer? He was okay I thought, or as okay as one could hope for in a game like this.
KCRybek
I’m trying to calm and not over react but I’m starting to wonder about the long term viability of 6 and 17
Avsfan20
Are you serious? You’re wondering on the long-term viability of our longest-termed Av and one of our most promising young players? Really? Well, I’ve got a storyline to sell you that involves trading MacKinnon for a bag of pucks… (In case you missed it, that’s heavy sarcasm.)
osmodiarshazbot
Good to know how far back the Avs actually are from competing for the cup.
Jose
The Grinch that stole Florida – stink stank stunk
lawboy
Varly only gave up 5!
You’re right! I was on the Avs’ level tonight and blew it
Historically I haven’t given grades to goalie replacements because even if they give up goals, the majority of the time they play the game has already been decided. That was true again tonight so I didn’t bother trying to decipher what to give Grubauer in purely garbage time
teerav42
Reasonable!
JDC15
Shit happens. Don’t watch film of it, acknowledge it and move on. What’s important is that they don’t let this game linger into other games.
rrkumar009
Eh. File it in the memory bank for the playoffs. It was one regular season Eastern Conference road game. Hopefully this was a learning experience and that’s all.
ThePhotoGorilla
I think size and physicality were an issue for the Avs all night. They are a fast and skilled team, but generally small. TBL is skilled, fast, but with size and they played that game hard. This game was a good indication of where Super Joe should want to point the ship.
ahinton54
I couldn’t agree more with this…if the Avs want to get past the first round for the first time in 11 years, size/physicality aspect must be addressed by Quoteless Joe.
Chris DeMott
This is a common request, but I was at the “Big Guy who has Skill and Can Skate and Actually knows how to Play Hockey” store yesterday with Joe and the shelves were pretty empty. The few that were for sale were incredibly expensive. We did run into Patrick Roy while we were there and he had few guys named… Colburne and Grigorenko I think… there was also this Martinson guy that he thought we could get for Sven 10… But Joe declined, wished him well and suggested that we head over to the “Win Cups the Blackhawk way” seminar. While there we learned about the draft and building from within. We also learned about using a combination of speed and precision as well as disciplined hockey to work around the thugs and pylons. They mentioned that it didn’t hurt to have a few big guys for traffic in front of the net and to lay the odd big hit “just to let them know you’re there”, but that’s when Joe mentioned that he already had Rantenen, Landeskog, MacKinnon, Soderberg, EJ, Zadorov and Cole amongst others in his core group and thought that Cale Makar might be a better addition. So we went home.
picaro
Love this.
Unit5
One of the best comments I’ve seen
jpwheels
Too funny, and spot on!
Eidolon
Noice.
Nels
Bravo!
Your grades are right on target all around, AJ. The game reminded me of watching the Russians play our US team just BEFORE the 1980 Olympics started (score 10-3). Tampa’s precision skating/passing/scoring had that kind of play from the Russkies of the past. Hopefully, we can embrace the American spirit and bounce back immediately like our 1980 gold medal winners did…
Unit5
Great analogy!
Bob_W
I agree with your description of Varly’s play but the grade is off base in that context. Give him a C. He didn’t get lit up for 5 goals his team let him down for 5 goals.
jpwheels
I’m thinking along these same lines — the grade given just doesn’t fit.
Breckten
Do you guys think that Bednar would consider breaking up the three headed monster if they continue to “struggle” (for their standards) to spread out the scoring across the top 6?
Also do you think, though he has been hung out to dry a lot, Varlys recent play has opened the door for Grubi to step in more games with his recent improved play.