Avs Game 28 Grades - Avs Win Defensive Battle

The Avalanche played arguably their best defensive game in two years, and were able to come out in top against the Minnesota Wild in overtime, winning 2-1.

How did each player perform?  Let’s find out…

Tyson Barrie (B+) – The thing you have to like about Barrie’s goal is that he kept going to the net instead of peeling off.  He’s at his best when he’s aggressive.  The whole play started with him breaking it out defensively.  I liked a lot of the reverse plays that he and Holden worked in the defensive zone tonight.

Francois Beauchemin (B+) – A really strong game for the veteran, although he lost Parise right before Parise scored his goal.  Other than that, he was on top of his game, and broke up a lot of cycles in the defensive zone.

Blake Comeau (B-) – Comeau and Soderberg seem to have become the shut down duo.  They may not be best suited for the role, but they’re doing the best they can and have chemistry.  A nice zone entry and hard pass by Comeau helped on the Barrie goal.

Matt Duchene (C+) – The top line has really stalled the last few games, and Duchene found himself going offsides a few times tonight, although he didn’t agree with all of the calls.  He made a great play in overtime to draw a defender to him and get Mitchell open.

Brandon Gormley (B) – I know it was a low event game, but in almost 12 minutes of ice time, the Wild only attempted 2 shots with him out there.  That’s impressive.  He was being a bit more aggressive offensively in the second period.  He did have a bad icing in the first where he should have skated another stride to center ice.

Nate Guenin (B-) – Other than a really bad icing in the first period, Guenin played a pretty solid game, and both he and Gormley did not hurt the team.

Nick Holden (C) – I thought he was pretty easily the worst defenseman on the Avs tonight.  He made a terrible no look pass to Barrie in the first period that put Barrie in an awful spot, and led to a penalty.  He recovered nicely the rest of the game, but still got beat a lot on the cycle.

Jarome Iginla (C+) – Iggy was angry tonight, but I think he got drawn into a bad penalty in the second period.  He was better, but another 0 shot night for him and he only has 1 goal in his last 13 games.

Erik Johnson (A) – The best skater on the ice for the Avs tonight.  When EJ moves his feet, he’s impossible to slow down because of his size and skating ability.  He led several rushes tonight and was a one man breakout machine.

Gabriel Landeskog (C) – The top line is getting shut down offensively, but I still think they’re doing good things defensively, other than the Parise goal.  Still, the reason why they’re together is to create offense, and there wasn’t enough of it tonight.

Nathan MacKinnon (C) – MacK has hit a bit of a rough spot in his season.  He’s not putting up points, and looks a bit frustrated.  I hope he keeps shooting though.  He had a chance in the slot in the second period but appeared to hit Kuemper in the chest.

Andreas Martinsen (C+) – Roy loves him, but I’m not as high on him.  He’s really weak on the puck defensively, and a turnover on his first shift led to a chance for the Wild.  I also watched him get out-muscled by Spurgeon, whose almost half his size.  The offensive rush he made in the first period is the stuff you want to see from a guy with his size.  Although I didn’t like his game defensively, I did like his game offensively, and his “bump” of Niederreiter after the whistle was entertaining.

Cody McLeod (B-) – I think the new 4th line with Wagner in the middle looks really good, and they’re keeping the puck in the offensive zone for the most part.  McLeod was decent on the cycle, although some of the angles he takes on the forecheck are bizarre.

John Mitchell (B+) – Of the Avs top 3 lines, Mitchell’s had the best possession numbers.  His work to shield the puck from two Wild players prior to the overtime goal was huge, and the goal was obviously a big one for this team.

Jack Skille (B) – He’s embracing his role as a 4th line guy and seems to have found some nice chemistry with Wagner.

Carl Soderberg (A-) – He was arguably the best forward on the team tonight.  I hope people realize how difficult the pass he made to Barrie on his goal was to make.  It’s not easy to one time a pass across your body like that, and the pass Comeau gave him was extremely hard.  He battled really hard defensively all night.

Alex Tanguay (B-) – For 2 of his 3 games since returning, he has looked pretty good.  I hope that’s a sign that he can help this team the rest of the year.

Semyon Varlamov (A) – Varly has put together three straight strong performances, and the team really needed that.  He wasn’t tested a lot tonight, but stood tall when he was, and was especially great in overtime.

Chris Wagner (B) – Given he’s been really good on faceoffs since coming over, it’ll be interesting to see if Roy starts to trust him more in the defensive zone.  He finished with really strong possession numbers and won 66% of his faceoffs.

The Avs face off against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday night in Denver.  The game starts at 8 PM MST.