Avs-Oilers Grades: Disappointment in Denver

The Colorado Avalanche lost to the Edmonton Oilers in a disappointing 4-2 fashion.

How did the players grade out? Check it out.

Tyson Barrie (D) – Nowhere near good enough from Barrie today. There were some glimpses of good on the power play but several of his reads put him in no man’s land and either led to chances against or created havoc for his defensive partner. He has really struggled lately.

Gabriel Bourque (C) – He was fine today, I suppose. There was no good or bad from him in this one. His line scored a goal and didn’t give one up. From a fourth line, you’ll take that all day.

Blake Comeau (C+) – He was physical today, one of the few Avalanche players who matched Edmonton’s energy and physicality as the game wore on. He created one nice scoring opportunity but failed to finish.

J.T. Compher (C-) – These are the types of games where you wonder what his ceiling really is. He wasn’t part of much offensively and wasn’t a creator of anything anywhere on the ice. He didn’t have a bad game but he’s one of the players the Avalanche were hoping would step up more as the year has worn on and I think Jost is beginning to pass him in night-to-night effectiveness.

Samuel Girard (D-) – He was a disaster on the second power play unit. They generated no offense and he allowed several pucks to either get by him and out of the zone or fumbled them to the point where it became a contested puck and he lost the battle. He was nothing short of a mess today in a role the team needs him to thrive in.

Erik Johnson (C+) – Johnson was aggressive but mistake-prone offensively in this one but his defensive play was in better shape, especially as the game went on. He suffered what looked like a shoulder injury early in the third and left the game and did not return.

Tyson Jost (B) – He drew the short straw of the forwards in MacKinnon’s return and got dropped to the fourth line. He didn’t care much as he scored the game’s first goal on a great individual effort and he beat Talbot cleanly. He didn’t do much from there but his line was effective-ish.

Alexander Kerfoot (B-) – He’s living some kind of charmed life right now, isn’t he? He seems to score some of the strangest goals the Avs have recorded this season.

Gabriel Landeskog (C) –  I thought he was a lot better today than against Winnipeg. The only reason the grade isn’t a little higher is because there were some weak puck moments or poor decisions that could have resulted in making the game 3-1, which would have obviously had a significant impact on how the third period played out.

Anton Lindholm (D+) – Lindholm’s puck management was a nightmare early on so naturally he picked up an assist off Kerfoot’s body in the second period. He left the second with an injury and did not return.

Nathan MacKinnon (A) – This is a soft A because he didn’t have an ‘A’ game but this was just for him being out there. He immediately changed aspects of the offense and his line had several “coulda shoulda woulda” moments, as my dad would have called them. A fine-tuning of the execution and this line is back to producing serious points again.

Patrik Nemeth (D) – Everyone saw the moment when he stood still with the puck for an extended period of time and fired it right to the Oilers player at the blue line but that was nowhere near his only forehead-slapping moment with the puck. A brutal night for him overall.

Matt Nieto (C-) – It’s been a while since I’ve really noticed much of anything from him and today was no different. There was a nice play here or there but nothing that ended up counting. He’s not playing poorly, just being overextended.

Mikko Rantanen (C) – Same with Landeskog and MacKinnon, there were some close calls but nothing that mattered. Defensively, I saw him lose track of his coverage a couple of times but he also created a bit of offense on his own. I think we’ll be saying that a lot of times over his career.

Carl Soderberg (C-) – He gets a slight ding because he ended up with the best chances of his linemates and as the most talented player on that line, he failed to finish some open opportunities. This grade is more reflective of result than process on a day I think we’re going to mark as a turning point of this season.

Dominic Toninato (C-) – He didn’t do much in this one. The mistakes he did make were minor and the small things he did well didn’t translate to much of anything. He randomly allowed a puck by him for an icing in the third period that he should have played as the pass was clearly intended for him.

Semyon Varlamov (A-) – This would have been a solid ‘A’ but I’m just not sure why he committed so hard on the third Edmonton goal and took himself wildly out of position. I’m not a goalie so I’m probably being a little harsh here 

Colin Wilson (D+) – He had a secondary assist on the fortunate Kerfoot goal but beyond that, he badly struggled to make a positive impact.

Nikita Zadorov (B) – He rang a missile off the post that would have changed the game (“coulda woulda shoulda” I can hear my dad say again) but here we are. He stepped up in EJ’s absence and ate a bunch of minutes and did so like Pac-Man getting after some fruit. Nomnom, big fella. 

Jared Bednar (C) – Today’s unraveling wasn’t a tactical thing to me. I thought they got beat by a great player in a tough situation. Bednar’s mettle down the stretch is about to be tested in a big way…again.