Avs-Ducks player grades: Collapse

ANAHEIM, Calif. – It was a painful one tonight here at the Honda Center, no doubt about it. The agony of defeat in this one all right.

But, as Jared Bednar said: “A point’s a point.” But it should have been two points. Here’s a look at the Avs individually in this one:

Mikko Rantanen (D-) – Just a bad game for the Finn. Minus-3 on the sheet, turnovers, overpassing, lots of time he fell down on the ice, etc., etc. I thought he looked slow and tired as the game went along. I thought he competed hard, but the results were just really lacking.

Nathan MacKinnon (C) – Might be a bit generous here with this grade. His analytics certainly weren’t great – 17 Corsi events for, 28 against. He just never could get that extra step on anyone to really free himself for high-end chances. But he played hard and chipped in a power-play assist. He needs to find the back of the net if the Avs want to have any chance of beating L.A. tomorrow I think.

Gabe Landeskog (F) – Terrible, his worst game of the season I think. His silly back pass in the offensive zone led to Andrew Cogliano’s breakaway goal to tie it in the first. Then he misses a seeming sure-fire tip that would have won it in OT, and follows that up with a soft poke check that was basically the primary assist on Ondrej Kase’s game-winner.

Nikita Zadorov (C) – He was credited with five hits, but not much went his way otherwise. He seemed jittery with the puck a lot of the time, making blind clearouts that sometimes went for icings and helped exhaust himself and teammates. He took separate minors in the first period too. Not an awful night, but not a great one either.

Tyson Barrie (C-) – He played nearly 26 minutes, to lead the team, but it wasn’t a great night for him either. He got outworked by Andrew Cogliano on the tying goal of the game, by Ryan Kesler, and was too tentative for my taste with the puck on the power play. His Corsi numbers: 22 for, 31 against. That’s a lot against.

Alexander Kerfoot (B+) – A goal and assist for the rookie, though he lost 5-of-7 faceoffs and was guilty of a careless icing in the third period that further tired the team. His goal was a fluky one – he barely touched the puck on a faceoff that wound up in Anaheim’s net. But whatever, still a good night for the kid from Hah-vahd.

Tyson Jost (A-) – Two goals, including a beauty of a wrist shot past Ryan Miller in the third period that made it 3-1. That, unfortunately for the Avs, was their last great moment of the night. He outworked Kesler to score on rebound to give the Avs a 2-1 lead too.

J.T. Compher (D) – He lost 12-of-14 faceoffs. That’s a success rate of 14 percent. The Avs, as a team, won only 38 percent in the dots. He was quiet offensively too – no points, no shots. Avs need him to step up in these last three games.

Patrik Nemeth (D) – Sloppy and jittery with the puck much of the night and out of position a few times in his own end. He had 24 Corsi events against, 15 for. Not good.

Sam Girard (D) – One of his poorer games in a while. Nothing offensively, a minus-2. He did have a couple nifty spin-o-ramas, of course, but when will this produce any offense? He was beaten pretty bad down the wing by Kase on the game-winner too.

Carl Soderberg (C-) – Didn’t love his game tonight. He was late covering Adam Henrique on the backdoor goal that made it a 3-2 game, and he did next to nothing offensively. He was decent on the PK, though and won 44-percent of his faceoffs, which for this team was good tonight.

Sven Andrighetto (C-) – He failed to convert on a great chance later in the game, and played just 13:29. He did have three shots on net and skated hard, but he’s another forward who didn’t execute in the final analysis.

Blake Comeau (C) – I thought he over-handled the puck at times, trying to be too fancy. He’s not Wayne Gretzky, he’s Blake Comeau. Sometimes I think he forgets that. He went 0-for-4 on faceoffs, with no points. The analytics weren’t terrible though: 15 Corsi for, 17 against.

Mark Alt (B-) – I thought he was fine overall. He played 12 minutes of even hockey. His Corsi for-against was 11-10. He had a couple of nervous moments, but overall he’s been a nice fill-in of late.

David Warsofsky (C) – Some really shaky moments out there. Some bad passes, a couple icings, a couple turnovers. But he had three shots on net and skated with the puck into the Ducks’ zone a few times. This might be a generous grade, but he’s a No. 6 D-man right now. This is graded on a bit of a curve.

Gabriel Bourque (C) – Graded on a curve again here. Only played 7:24. Barely noticeable out there, but didn’t do anything to embarrass himself either.

Nail Yakupov (C) – Only played 8:06, and his offensive game has completely, 100-percent disappeared. This guy was a No. 1 pick in the NHL draft once. But was he terrible? No. Just…never mind.

Matt Nieto (C-) – Just didn’t get much accomplished out there offensively. He is a pretty good fundamental hockey player, sealing the wall on the forecheck, getting pucks deep, etc. But you need some scoring too, and he only had one shot in nearly 18 minutes of hockey.

Jonathan Bernier (B+) – I thought he was real good. Sure, that third goal he’d love to have back probably, but he made 38 saves. He’s gonna have to keep it up if this team is to play any hockey beyond Saturday.