Avs-Blue Jackets player grades: More of the same

Sven Andrighetto (B) – This was his best game by a country mile in a long time. He’s been a total no-show for a while but he was buzzing all over the ice tonight. He had multiple very good scoring chances but didn’t capitalize. If he played this way more consistently, he wouldn’t be stuck on Colorado’s fourth line.

Tyson Barrie (C) – I thought he was pretty good at 5v5. The power play he’s QBing continues to be nothing short of an active detriment to this team. Losing that footrace to Dubois for the sixth goal doesn’t matter much in the long run but it’s pretty inexplicable.

Gabriel Bourque (B) – He picked up an assist on a nice play. It was a good night for Colorado’s fourth line.

Matt Calvert (C) – Calvert was fine. He showed some speed and more or less did what he does every night. There wasn’t anything great in either direction for him.

Ian Cole (C+) – I don’t have any issues with the way he played the first Columbus goal. That’s how those guys are taught to defend that play and it’s standard for Cole to do what he did on that play. His goalie simply has to be better. There wasn’t much else of note from Cole tonight.

J.T. Compher (C) – He’s really disappeared hard with more minutes and responsibility. The problem is the Avs don’t have anybody that you can say is definitively better than him to replace him so Colorado is stuck rolling out the same group that has proven ineffective.

Sheldon Dries (B-) – I’m really not bothered by Dries on the fourth line much. There aren’t any clearly better options for the center spot (specifically the center so don’t give me any A.J. Greer stuff) so this is fine with me. He was good tonight alongside his linemates and Dries found his way to an assist tonight. That was a nice reward for a solid night for him.

Samuel Girard (B-) – I thought he played like a maniac in this one until the third period. His goal was the good stuff we’ve been waiting to see from him and he was far more effective in his aggressive decisions on offense. He needs to do that every night moving forward. Defensively, I thought the way he played the game-winning goal was pretty poor. He lost a battle to the puck that he easily should have won and was far too casual in letting the forecheck get on top of him and dictate that play. A more confident play and not only does Columbus not score there but they don’t even get possession of the damn puck.

Philipp Grubauer (F) – The second goal is pure bad luck. The third goal he gets beaten on a breakaway by Cam Atkinson, one of the better goal scorers in the NHL. The first goal is more of the wraparound nonsense that only seems to plague the Avalanche goalies on a consistent basis and the fourth and fifth goals are Grubauer getting beat. He made some nice saves to keep the Avalanche in it but folding in the third and giving up five more goals is a great way to get an F. These goalies just suck right now.

Erik Johnson (A-) – There was some positive in there tonight with that blast of a goal in the first period. I didn’t really have an issue with his game the rest of the way and he was on the positive side of everything you want to be on the positive side of.

Alexander Kerfoot (D) – What has happened to this guy? He’s not only failing to produce but he’s simply not even competitive right now. It looks like he’s skating hard and putting the effort out there but there’s nothing happening with it. “Try hard” isn’t enough in this league and a guy with his skill level shouldn’t be looking as helpless as he does.

Gabriel Landeskog (D) – This line was pretty terrible again but I thought Landeskog was the least detrimental player. He got a case of the bad luck on the second CBJ goal when Grubauer blockered a shot right into him and the puck trickled its way into the net. The hockey gods clearly aren’t fans of the Avalanche right now.

Nathan MacKinnon (F) – He picked up an assist but I thought he was pretty bad tonight. On the ice for multiple goals against as his line again lost the matchup against the other team’s top line, MacKinnon also was consistently ineffective with the puck. He looks like the 50-point player from two years ago and not the dominant world beater we’ve seen so frequently the last 18 months.

Patrik Nemeth (D) – It was a low event night for Nemeth, as it always should be, but his play on the game-winning goal was just frustrating. If Nemeth botches something in the breakout or on offense, you kind of shrug it off because that’s not who he is or what you’re asking him to do much of the time. But when he’s botching basic defense on a forechecker on a dumped in puck, that’s supposed to be his bread and butter and he flails about helplessly and lets the other team do whatever the hell they want, you seriously have to ask what this guy is giving you out there. This might be overly harsh but that one poor play helped cost them the game.

Matt Nieto (C-) – Seth Jones made a great play to deny Nieto and easy tap-in goal on the backdoor. Great play by Jones, bad play by Nieto letting it happen to him. Not a fair matchup by any means as Jones is going to win that battle at least seven times out of ten but Nieto simply has to find a way with an empty net and a chance to give his team a two-goal lead going into the third period. “Failure to find a way” is the definition of this team right now.

Mikko Rantanen (F) – I don’t really think Mikko has done much of anything notable in quite a while. He hasn’t played well and he’s hardcore turned into a wallflower. I expected his absurd numbers from the early season to slow down but I didn’t expect him to turn into an ineffective overall player whose offense can’t make up for the clueless defense he plays at times.

Carl Soderberg (C-) – Another guy who the Avalanche didn’t get a good enough game from tonight. Just not good enough. Nothing else really matters there.

Colin Wilson (C) – He is very much Just A Guy right now. This is deadline depth if a playoff team comes looking for some. He can effective for stretches and rarely does he hurt a team and there’s value in that but not for a team sinking their way out of relevance in a real hurry.

Nikita Zadorov (C-) – Some good moments like the goal and a few nice hits. Some questionable moments like him not accounting for Atkinson at all until it was way too late on the breakaway goal to end the second period. He never looks back to see where that guy coming off the bench is. He just watches the puck the entire time. His lack of general awareness can be maddening because it has a tendency to betray his legitimate talent. Another frustrating night for a player who always seems to be teetering on the edge of great things.