Avalanche-Canucks player grades: Career night

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Back at the Airbnb here in beautiful B.C. (a five-star stay here, a nice husband, wife and two teenage-son family that welcomed me here for two nights at a TOTAL of $64, a nice basement room that has a coffee maker, nice big firm King bed and came complete with a welcome tray of homemade pound cake).

Time to grade the players from the amazing game I just saw down the road at Rogers Arena, a 5-4 comeback special over the Canucks.

Let’s get to it:

Tyson Barrie (X) – My first-ever rated X to a player, my own special grade for a player who was X-tra special, X-tra terrestrially good. All Barrie did was score a goal and assist on four others. He scored the tying goal with just under three minutes left in regulation, then played just about every second of OT before setting up Nathan MacKinnon for the winner. Winner, winner, Tyson chicken dinner.

Nikita Zadorov (C-) – Not a great night for Big Z. He coughed the puck up on Vancouver’s first goal, then turned it over again on the third, plus took a penalty. He’s got to play a simpler game with the puck in his own end. I think it’ll be OK with him though. I think his head is in the right place and he’s playing with confidence most of the time. I think he just needs to keep really focusing a little better on the smaller things, which in turn will lead to bigger, better things. But more nights like this, and this opinion will turn quick.

Mikko Rantanen (A) – Big No. 96 came into this one with just one goal in his previous 12, which earned him some one-on-one time yesterday with Jared Bednar. The message: Get to the front of the net, get your hands dirty a little bit again. The result? A three-point night. He scored on a laser shot to get the Avs on the comeback trail, at 4-2 late in the second, and got those hands dirty the rest of the winning way.

Nathan MacKinnon (A) – A goal and three assists, with the goal being the neutron bomb of a slap shot to end it. He had six shots on net and was a force most every time he had the puck. Yeah, all his points were on the power play, but he could have had more at even strength too.

Gabe Landeskog (A) – For the fifth time in his career, the captain achieved the 20-goal mark, with his late second-period marker that made it a one-goal game entering the third. It wasn’t just his points tonight (two, though that helped). It was more his overall engagement level, especially around the net. He and Mikko Rantanen were both tougher and silkier around the net. It needs to continue if the playoffs are to be of any hope.

Sam Girard (B) – He got nothing on the score sheet, but overall I liked his game tonight. It’s going to take a little bit for him and Patrik Nemeth to adjust to each other as a pair, but overall I thought the Lieutenant was pretty steady. He even laid a couple of big hits on guys along the boards. He’s tougher than you might think.

Patrik Nemeth (B-) – Did he make a couple of ghastly plays with the puck? Does a bear S in the woods? But as much as he frightens you at times with his puck management, I thought he played very hard and mostly very effectively in the last half of the game. He played nearly 25 minutes overall. One thing that can be safely said about Broadway Nemeth: He plays very hard. He is just soaked in sweat after every game, and he really takes losing hard. You really don’t want to go anywhere near him after a loss. Fortunately for tonight, he was a happy man afterward.

Alexander Kerfoot (C) – About 15 mostly unmemorable minutes for the kid from Vancouver, whose father owns the MLS team that plays right across the street. He did draw a penalty, though, that led to one of the Avs’ five power-play goals. The Avs got away with it tonight, but they will need better contributions from the second line, which presumably will feature Kerfoot a lot, if they are to make a legit playoff run.

J.T. Compher (C+) – Like his linemate Kerfoot, Compher was blanked on the score sheet in a five-goal game for his team. But he had three shots on net and won 60-percent of his five faceoffs. He also did a pretty good job defensively on Brock Boeser.

Gabriel Bourque (C+) – He started the game playing on a second line, with Kerfoot and Compher. By the end, though, Jared Bednar shortened his bench and Bourque was one of the guys who mostly saw his butt planted to said bench. Tyson Jost essentially took his minutes on that line by the end. Still, I didn’t think Bourque did anything to embarrass himself out there.

David Warsofsky (B) – I thought the kid from Boston University acquitted himself well out there, playing nearly 13 minutes of very respectable hockey one day after being recalled on the San Antonio-Denver shuttle. He was credited with two blocked shots, got one shot on net himself and was even overall.

Duncan Siemens (B+) – No joke, I thought the oft-maligned Siemens played a very effective game out there in the 10:22 of ice time he got from Jared Bednar. He had a couple shots on goal, including one very hard slapper from the point. I thought he made effective puck decisions in his own end and was physical when needed. Maybe there’s hope for this kid yet.

Carl Soderberg (C-) – Not much to write home about for Carl tonight. No shots on net, no points. Hey, he did win more draws than he lost, though, and had a couple of nice clears in PK situations. That’s about it.

Matt Nieto (C-) – He finished a minus-1 in nearly 14 minutes. It seems as if he’s  kind of slipping pass to that invisible guy he was too much earlier in the season. Thing is, the Avs need more of the visible Nieto in the final third, if there is to be any hope of a playoff spot.

Blake Comeau (C) – He had the puck in some prime scoring areas, including a mini-breakaway in the third period that would have tied it. But nothing went in. He did a couple good things on the PK, though, and won his only faceoff of the night.

Nail Yakupov (D) – Honestly, I’m not sure he ever was able to possess the puck more than a second or two tonight before either turning it over and just fumbling it away off his stick. His body and mind just are not in sync right now. His brain seems to want him to take his time with the puck. But his body wants everything to happen at 100 mph, and the two just are not jibing effectively.

Colin Wilson (D) – Pretty much zeroes across the board for the $4 million man again tonight. Well, except f0r the “2” he earned in the second period, as in penalty minutes, which led to a Vancouver PP goal by Nikolay Goldobin. Wilson committed the cardinal sin of taking a penalty in the offensive zone, which always seem to result in goals against. Frankly, this guy just hasn’t added much to the mix all season.

Tyson Jost (B) – His tip led to one goal, and he moved up in the lineup as the game went on. It was his drawing of a penalty to Canucks twin icon, Daniel Sedin, that led to the Avs’ winning OT goal. Overall, a night of contribution for the kid.

Semyon Varlamov (C+) – A bad luck, own-goal deflection cost him one goal, and turnovers in his own end led to suicide mission-type encounters on another couple goals. Sure, Varly could have been much sharper anyway, but he did make some big saves in the late going to get it to OT.