Avs Game 19 Grades - No longer streaking through the quad

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The Colorado Avalanche blew a third period lead by giving up 4 goals in the final frame, losing to the Edmonton Oilers 6-3.

How did each player perform?  Let’s find out…

Tyson Barrie (F) – An argument could be made for Barrie being the most disappointing player through 19 games, even if he is still putting up points.  He’s making a lot of mistakes, and they aren’t mistakes from him pushing the play, which are the ones you deal with.  He was on the ice for 14 scoring chances against, the highest on the Avs.

Francois Beauchemin (F) – Yikes, that was an ugly game for Beauch.  Couldn’t catch the pass prior to the Oilers first goal, although it wasn’t a great pass.  Took a bad interference penalty in the second, and just struggled the majority of the night.

Rene Bourque (B+) – You really cannot argue with another 2 goals from Bourque, once again from within 10 feet of the net.  He’s doing what the Avs probably thought Colborne would do.

Joe Colborne (D) – Other than his defense of MacKinnon after a clean hit, he was invisible again.

Blake Comeau (B) – The third line was easily the Avs most consistent line tonight.  He and Mitchell work well together, as they’re very similar players.

Matt Duchene (D) – Duchene looked like a complete perimeter player tonight, spinning endlessly in the corner all night with plays dying on his stick.  Hopefully the concussion doesn’t take away his willingness to go to the net.

A.J. Greer (D) – Easily his worst showing in the NHL to date.  With Landeskog possibly returning on Saturday, who knows if he’ll get another game this time up.

Jarome Iginla (D+) – The penalties are really annoying with Iggy this year, but his line did play well, and was definitely the most effective one for the Avs.  Penalties overshadowed what really wasn’t a bad showing by him beyond that.

Erik Johnson (D) – If you are tasked with shutting down the best (and fastest) player in the league, making terrible decisions about pinching is not the way to go.  EJ got caught a few times, and his bad pass, then bad read, is what led to the game tying goal at the start of the 3rd.

Nathan MacKinnon (C) – He was electrifying in the first, and disappointing the rest of the way.  Certainly glad to see he wasn’t injured after that big hit.

Andreas Martinsen (D) – With the Avs trying to chase in the third, he took a bad high sticking penalty in the offensive zone.  Really limited game other than that.

Cody McLeod (D) – He provides nothing at this point.  He has his following, but the game has passed him by, in my opinion.

John Mitchell (B) – As already mentioned, his line was good again, and the best on the team, but for all their zone time (he led team with 65% CF), they were not able to bury a goal.

Mikko Rantanen (B-) – Smart chip to MacKinnon in the first, and another assist in the second period, but a bad penalty late in the game that more or less sealed it.

Carl Soderberg (D) – I’m not a “SHOOOT!” kind of guy, but there’s a lot of times where I really have the urge to yell it at Soderberg.  You’re a big guy, just shoot it or take it to the net sometimes.

Fedor Tyutin (C+) – Tyutin was the steadiest defenseman on the ice for the Avs tonight, which says all you need to know about how the game went.

Semyon Varlamov (D) – When he’s had bad games this year, it seems they get out of control for him real fast.  The goal from behind the goal line ended up being the game-winner, and that stings.

Patrick Wiercioch (C) – I noticed less mistakes from him tonight than a lot of the other defensemen, but he also gets the easiest minutes on the defense, so you’d hope that’s the case.

Nikita Zadorov (D+) – Another bad first period followed by steady improvement through the game.  He needs to put together a full game to get his confidence back.  For a staff that feels he’s taken a step back, they sure don’t give him easy starts, as he’s started less shifts in the OZ than all the other defensemen in the two games since being scratched.  Had best CF% among Avs D, and that still wasn’t even 50%.

The Avalanche continue their home stand when they take on the Vancouver Canucks this Saturday.  The game starts at 8 PM MST.