Avs-Golden Knights Grades: Vegas flu

The Colorado Avalanche dropped a crucial road game to the Vegas Golden Knights 4-1. Below are player grades for the brave and bold.

Mark Alt (C+) – You know what? This guy hasn’t been so shabby so far. I can live with this. He almost scored in the first! That would have been wild.

Tyson Barrie (D) – Over the years, I’ve listened to a certain section of Avs fans pine for Barrie to play forward. With the Avs losing in the third, you might have been convinced they had made the change with as often as he was breaking up the ice and trying to make something happen. I get it, but come on.

Gabriel Bourque (C+) – The 11 forward thing has boosted my appreciation of Bourque’s game. He’s usually out there now with at least one skill player and it’s kind of a wild time. Bad things aren’t happening and I’ll take that with the fourth line.

Blake Comeau (B-) – Loved the power move to the net on the game’s only goal. No surprise, getting Fleury moving and a rebound was the goal that beat him. Beyond that, Comeau was fine.

J.T. Compher (C-) – Some good, some bad with Compher on this night. The lack of finish from that line is a serious, serious problem.

Samuel Girard (B) – I really liked what Girard brought to the table tonight. He was flying all around and making things happen, especially defensively. Solid night for him until the third period, which is a caveat that applies to everybody.

Erik Johnson (D) – Some great from EJ tonight. The goal was great, he made some good decisions early, but his puck management completely fell apart in the third period when the Avs needed it the most.

Tyson Jost (C-) – Not a great night for Jost. There were some moments but it’s going to be remembered for his six penalty minutes, arguably none of which he really earned. His first penalty was a weak call and the second, while correct by the letter of the law, is a tough call to make when Jost had his stick lifted into someone else’s face.

Alexander Kerfoot (C-) – This line just hasn’t produced enough. Frustrating. Kerfoot seemed to disappear a bit in a faster environment, which surprised me a bit. I thought he’d handle the uptempo pace a little better than he did.

Gabriel Landeskog (C+) – I thought there were some great moments from the top line tonight but their inability to finish was a glaring problem. Obviously.

Anton Lindholm (INC) – Five minutes of ice time? That’s not worth grading, though I didn’t have any issues with him.

Nathan MacKinnon (C) – There were some dangerous moments but I was actually surprised to see he had four shots on goal after the game. It didn’t seem like he was creating as much havoc as he did on Saturday.

Patrik Nemeth (D+) – Frustrated with some poor play at even strength and on the penalty kill tonight. I didn’t like his game.

Matt Nieto (C-) – He picked up an assist but beyond that I really felt like he was a ghost tonight. Very low impact. He continues to be an odd fit for this lineup.

Mikko Rantanen (D) – The top line wasn’t good enough tonight and I thought Rantanen was the worst of the bunch. He was swimming all over the ice and losing pucks. His play on the power play was downright detrimental. Just a bad, bad night.

Carl Soderberg (D) – He should be a big body that does work in these kinds of games. Instead, he played a small man’s game and when he happened to come across chances on offense, misplayed the chances so poorly that it never got close to amounting to anything. Major letdown from the man they call ‘Carl’.

Dominic Toninato (C+) – I liked his game. He was physical and looked okay. He had a real NHL-caliber scoring chance in the first period. I’d love to see him actually bury one of those someday…

Semyon Varlamov (C+) – Varly wasn’t the reason they lost and there’s a legitimate conversation to be had about what he could have done differently on each of the goals to have a better chance of stopping them. 

Nikita Zadorov (C-) – His puck management was pretty poor tonight and he botched a couple of intriguing offensive chances. I didn’t mind his defense for the most part although it was weird to see Barrie bail him out early on. Every game will probably feel like a letdown after the night he recorded 15 hits but that’s just unfair.