Avs Game 2 Grades: Built different

Nicolas Aube-Kubel – D

Oh boy, if you’re in the lineup to be heavy and hard to play against, you can’t be completely soft along the wall. A handful of turnovers that killed zone exits and led to zone time. Not good enough.

Andre Burakovsky – B-

Defensively, really strong, and did a surprisingly good job down low. Offensively, still not there. Had a good look on the power play that he waited a little too long to shoot and just shot it right into the defender.

Bowen Byram – B

Looked like he was going to be the hero with a great feed to Kadri late, but Ingram robbed Kadri, who didn’t get the puck up. The penalty was unfortunate, and something he’s going to need to relax a bit with, but he’s playing quite well.

J.T. Compher – B

Great look to hit Nichushkin in overtime that was very close to ending the game. Thought he was solid and had some nice hits as well.

Samuel Girard – B+

Let’s just get this out of the way: the goal was on him. It was a great read with an unfortunate result. But let’s look at the positive…the Avs were completely dominant with him on the ice. Only eight shot attempts against with him out there, and a whopping 29 towards the Predators net. You can look at the negative, and that’s fine, but that was one play in a great game overall.

Darren Helm – A

Great on the penalty kill again, great on the forecheck again, and providing nothing but energy every time he gets on the ice. This is the reason he’s here.

Erik Johnson – A

Everything EJ did in the defensive zone worked tonight. His stick was on fire. Poke checks ending cycles on a consistent basis, and basically starting the breakout the other way. He even had a few breakouts going with his legs as well. Just a great game.

Nazem Kadri – B

Huge hit in the first period behind the Predators net to help set the tone. Didn’t have his best game overall, and had chances to end it, but couldn’t pull it off. If he lifts the puck on Ingram, he’s the hero. I did like the tenaciousness of the second line once Nuke was put back there.

Darcy Kuemper – B+

Boy what a boring final two periods for him. It’s tough to sit around and not have to do anything for a long period of time, but he did that and came up huge just before the Makar goal in overtime with some big saves.

Gabriel Landeskog – B

Tough whiff late in the game when he had a good look on the backside in what appeared to be an empty net. He found his way back onto the top line, and they looked just as dominant as they always do. There was one shift in overtime where he recovered the puck four separate times behind the Preds net. He can do it all.

Artturi Lehkonen – A-

Tough luck on the disallowed goal, because he’s just doing exactly what he’s asked to do. Crash the net. I don’t even want to get into the goalie interference stuff, because I can never guess what they’re going to do. With Lehkonen on the ice, the Avs went +30/-9 at even strength.

Nathan MacKinnon – A+

He’s unstoppable if he plays like this. It’s not just the constant firing of the puck at the net, or the beating guys wide, but the physicality. He destroyed Lauzon at the end of the first to set the tone for the rest of the game. He’s on a mission.

Cale Makar – A+

How do you even explain what we witnessed tonight? The universe knew it was right to let him get the overtime goal because he earned it. 21 shot attempts, 12 shots on goal, a rush while down one skater, and a rush down two skaters. He’s a golden god and we just get to enjoy the show.

Josh Manson – A

Well through two games, he’s done exactly what he was brought in to do, and he’s even looked pretty competent on the offensive zone as well. He’s good supporting Girard on breakouts and they seem to have nailed down chemistry real fast.

Valeri Nichushkin – A

The universe just didn’t want Nuke to score a goal tonight. The disallowed goal is whatever you want to call it, and then Josi lifts his stick at the last second in overtime to stop Nuke from ending it. But holy cow were the Avs dominant with him on the ice, registering a whopping 37 shot attempts in his 15:48 on ice.

Logan O’Connor – A

Brought in and makes an immediate impact, assisting on the first goal of the game and making a huge play on the overtime winner by just outworking guys. This looked like the LOC we saw for the first two months of the year. Maybe he needed a little kick in the butt.

Mikko Rantanen – C+

He looked super frustrated, as most of his shot attempts were not even getting close to the net. Moved the puck well on the powerplay for the most part, but when it came time to rip the puck at the net, it just wasn’t happening. I picked him to be the man in Game 2, and he was not.

Nico Sturm – A

Sturm and Helm have developed into a nice little penalty-killing combo, as they caused havoc on the first Predators powerplay of the game by just forechecking harder than maybe the Preds expected. Nice to see him get on the scoresheet on the winner.

Devon Toews – B+

He knew that Makar was on one tonight, and fed him as much as he possibly could. Those two together are just pure magic.