The Colorado Avalanche lost to the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 in overtime. How did the players grade out?
Check it out below.
Tyson Barrie (D) – One game after a brilliant performance, Barrie reminded everyone why he’s never been a true number one defenseman. He chewed up a bunch of minutes and the Oilers were more than happy to see him out there. He was on the for 20 shots on goal and 36 (!!) shot attempts at even strength. That’s, uh, not good enough.
Gabriel Bourque (D+) – He played! Not particularly well, mind you, but not very many Avs were any good tonight. These types of efforts remind you why he’s spent so much time in the AHL recently.
Blake Comeau (C+) – One of the few Avs with a little effort tonight, Comeau was okay. He had a couple of nice scoring opportunities but nothing really dangerous. He was solid. His line was consistently active if nothing else.
J.T. Compher (D-) – He got demoted in the lineup and was sparingly used late and it was hard to argue too much with the decision. He continued a recent run of not playing very well. His shot metrics were good but tonight was definitely a night of eyes telling a different story. Knowing Compher, expect a good game against Calgary.
Samuel Girard (B) – He was in line for something a little higher until that overtime shift where Leon Draisaitl dismissed him. Draisaitl is one of the great talents in the NHL today so losing that matchup isn’t the end of the world. He’s a smart guy and will learn from it. Beyond that, he played very well and his goal was “Magnifique.”
Tyson Jost (C+) – His shot metrics were atrocious tonight but he individually showed out on several occasions, earning the promotion in the lineup in the third period. It paid off immediately with a great assist on Wilson’s goal.
Alexander Kerfoot (C+) – A little quiet offensively but he worked hard and took a ton of punishment in the dirty areas of the ice. He’s fearless and an absolute warrior and this team is significantly better because of his heart. He’s a legitimate building block.
Gabriel Landeskog (D+) – Where you at, cap?
Nathan MacKinnon (D) – Bednar tried to get something out of him by dropping him down to play with Soderberg and it just didn’t change anything for MacKinnon. He was kind of dangerous at times but zero even strength points in his three games back is worrisome for a team that has had trouble scoring at all lately.
Patrik Nemeth (C) – He was a mess early on but cleaned his game up as the night went on. A lot of people were unhappy with his play on Draisaitl’s goal but to my eye, he played his coverage correctly and watched his teammates get torched and then a weak shot beat Varlamov. Beyond that sequence, I liked plenty of what he did as the Oilers got nothing high-danger at even strength with him on the ice (compare this to Zadorov down below).
Matt Nieto (C) – He rang a shot off the post that would have changed a lot of the story on the night but that’s life, right?
Mikko Rantanen (F) – Got torched defensively and was a ghost offensively. Might have been his worst game of the season. Really bad showing from No. 96. It won’t be hard for him to improve upon this effort in Calgary.
Duncan Siemens (A-) – No other way to say it: Siemens was awesome tonight. He worked over McDavid a couple of times, played consistently good defense, was on the ice for almost nothing high quality against, moved the puck with confidence and had the kind of night we all envisioned would be the norm for him way back in 2011 on draft day. Even if it was just this once, seeing Siemens have this kind of game in an Avalanche uniform was stellar.
Carl Soderberg (B-) – I felt Soderberg was strong. His assist was the result of flat hard work and obviously a great shot from Girard. He outplayed MacKinnon tonight even if a glance at the box score disagrees. He could have been more aggressive shooting the puck but that’s just Soderberg.
Semyon Varlamov (A-) – He was the man tonight. Draisaitl’s goal was a little weak for my taste but he was incredible beyond that. He kept his team in the game when it could have easily gotten out of hand. The Avs have a nice point total after tonight only because Varlamov willed it to be. He was Colorado’s best player.
David Warsofsky (C+) – He wasn’t a standout like Siemens but he was damn solid in his own right. He hasn’t had a poor game in Colorado yet. I liked his puck-moving tonight and he had a good scoring chance as a result of a Siemens pass.
Colin Wilson (C+) – Great goal, good hard work. I saw some people upset with his game but I thought he was perfectly fine. He’s always been a weird fit in this lineup and that remains true until Colorado moves some of their guys out. But he has a place here and he’s not a bad glue guy for the youngsters to play alongside.
Nail Yakupov (D-) – I’m really over this experiment. As Adrian Dater mentioned on a recent podcast, he has brought all of his gear with him on this trip in case of trade. The Avalanche would do well to get that done.
Nikita Zadorov (F) – We all knew this was coming, right? I might disagree with Bednar’s decision to remove him COMPLETELY from the game after the second period but I don’t blame him for benching him in the first place. In just two periods of play, Zadorov was on the ice for 10 high-danger scoring chances against, higher than anybody but Barrie (and Barrie played 14 more minutes!). Edmonton generated 13 shots on goal against when Z was on the ice and his terrible play behind his own net led to Edmonton’s second goal. This was a disaster for big Z.
Jared Bednar (D) – Hear me out. The OT lines were definitely weird, granted. I disagree with the decision to remove Zadorov from the game completely. But the line mix up in the third period worked, as it generated the tying goal, and doing nothing would have been the easy way out for Bednar. Instead, he tried something, anything, and everything along the way as he tried to squeeze the extra point out of a team that seemed determined to lose in Edmonton tonight. I don’t know why this team struggles so much on the road but Bednar needs to get it figured out. They’re still somehow only three points out of a playoff spot but that won’t be the case for long if his team doesn’t correct its lethargic play. It’s been nearly a month since they played a legitimately strong game.
0 Comments (4 conversations)
jddavis008
Draisaitl’s goal may have been week but I think the blame is more on Rantanen there. Had he actually done more than futily swing his stick around Draisaitl doesn’t get the chance to walk in and shoot.
Eve
I thought Rantanen was equally at fault on the Draisaitl goal. What a lazy swing! Then the over time goal. Why on earth would you leave McDavid wide open. He looked terrible tonight and if you are going to sit players how about sitting Rantanen and Barrie’s shots directly into the player in front of him almost lead to two different shorthanded goals. Barrie could have sat too. Divide sitting out time between those two and Z.
I have been struggling with Bednar since December of 2016. Yes, we lost EJ for the season in early December but Bednar was into his 4th month as head coach and by then, he should have been able to bring the team chemistry together, regardless of EJ’s injury, and improve the play of the team for the rest of the season. I’m not suggesting he should have led the Avs to the play-offs last season by any means as there were a lot of moving parts, but at least play competitive hockey as the season wears on. Instead? The Avs go 13-45-3 from December on and have the worst collapse in modern NHL history.
This season? His scratches are almost solely based on one bone-headed mistake, which affects the confidence level of our 2nd through 4th line players each and every game. It doesn’t seem as if the new players feel Bednar is backing them and if our top core players respect him. And his benching of Z last eve for almost the entire 2nd half of the game is extreme. Why not take Z aside between the 2nd and 3rd period and have a one-on-one with him and tell him to get his act together and step-up in the 3rd period?
I know – easy for me to attack our head coach on his style. Perhaps it’s more effective than it seems, and his tactician system overcomes this, as I want Bednar to succeed and the players to respond accordingly. I just wonder if the turnaround this season is primarily based on the leadership of Lande, EJ and MacK in bringing the team chemistry together and in the Sakic transformation to make our team younger and faster to build our future upon…and if Bednar is the appropriate head coach to elevate the team beyond a turnaround season and lead the Avs to the Stanley Cup over the next few years.
hockeyhacker5
I agree with the grades, but I do want to point out that Barrie deserves a lot, if not most, of the blame on Kassian’s goal. When Zadorov got to the puck, Barrie stood behind the goal line on the right side doing nothing, with nobody. With his partner against the boards, he should have moved to the front of the net where Kassian eventually scored. Instead, he started skating to Zadorov, who made a nice little bank pass off the boards past Puljujarvi. The problem was that Letestu picked it off before Barrie could get it. The Oilers then got lucky as Letestu’s pass banked off the goal post right to Kassian for the goal as Barrie watched from the far corner, about 20 feet out of position. He played that like a forward instead of a defenseman, and ultimately that led to the goal. If Barrie goes where he’s supposed to, Zadorov dumps the puck up the boards to Yakupov and the Oilers never even touch the puck.
Unit5
To my eye, Siemens really stood out last night. He seems like a real good guy and I hope he can rejuvenate his career here or some place else.
The Heretic
Siemens was really the highlight of the night.