Avs Game 22 Grades: Beatdown in Beantown

Anton Blidh – C Against his former team, you’d have thought there might have been something a little extra in the tank. That wasn’t really the case. One of the few games I didn’t think he actively held his line back. Andrew Cogliano – C+ Scored his first goal of the season which actually involved him shooting the puck. I thought he had pretty decent jump and looked solid most of the night. A throwback Cogliano game. J.T. Compher – C- Might have had a goal but Charlie Coyle got there at the last second to spoil the chance. Following a four-point night, Compher reverted to his more normal form. Being asked to do a ton right now that he can’t quite live up to. Jean-Luc Foudy – D There were so many things to like about his game and they were all betrayed by two more penalties. He has three in three games. Stop committing hockey crimes, JLF. If he does that, the playmaking and skating and grit will shine a lot more. We saw all of those on display. Alex Galchenyuk – F Got crushed in shot share, had a turnover that led directly to Boston’s second goal, and still has yet to do anything offensively that would justify his continued place in the lineup. This is a feel-good story that hasn’t felt good since he started playing. Pavel Francouz – D Five goals against and a couple of them are pretty tough for any goalie to stop, but a couple are huge rebounds he gave up that his team couldn’t bail him out on. It’s long been a common problem of his and Boston made him pay for it. Sam Girard – C+ Watching the game, it didn’t feel great from Girard, but when it was all over, he was the only Av who got significant ice time that had quantity and quality in shot share numbers and he was an all-situation player in this one with PP and PK minutes. I feel like I’m always asking for more from G, so instead of doing that for this game I’ll just appreciate what he did. Was a spectator on the fifth Boston goal but that’s an awfully big rebound from Francouz. Dryden Hunt – F I’m going a little harsh on the grade here because Boston came out flying with energy and physicality and that’s the exact environment you want to see Hunt elevate his game. He shrank from the moment in this game and his penalty re-ignited Boston in the first period after it seemed the Avs had weathered the storm. Ugly game. Erik Johnson – C+ The shot share isn’t great, but I saw a lot of individual work out of EJ that I felt was commendable. With Manson out, it’s on him and mostly him alone to make life miserable for opposing forwards. I liked a lot of his game even if he was on the ice for three of their goals. Artturi Lehkonen – INC Sigh. Here we are once again saying we just hope Lehkonen’s injury isn’t too serious and that the Avs get his services back soon. He is an absolutely vital part of this lineup even when healthy, but right now he is a must-have. Jacob MacDonald – F 9:33. That’s it. That’s all MacDonald played, despite Englund being behind him on the pecking order and Englund being in the box for five minutes for his fight. Somehow, MacDonald made the least of his ice time with a nightmare of a game. A bad defensive breakdown again and was called for two penalties, one that led to a PP and one that led to a penalty shot. Nathan MacKinnon – C I don’t know how to grade Colorado’s stars in this game. They didn’t finish anything on offense and got beaten up defensively, but they’re also completely spent from taking every single shift against the best of the best every night. MacKinnon had another defensive-zone gaffe but was one of the few Avs whose offensive game included multiple quality scoring chances. He just didn’t finish them. That happens in hockey. Cale Makar – C You might sense a theme here where I’m giving some of Colorado’s stars a lighter grading because the job being asked of them is impossible. They have to generate basically all of Colorado’s offense in order to win games and tonight Makar, in particular, just looked spent. Andreas Englund – B I’m not an old-school hockey guy by any means but how do you not love Englund mixing it up in the first period? Boston was bullying the Avs all over the ice, Englund laid a fine hit on Nick Foligno and the old man took umbrage. Englund defended himself well and had a whale of a tilt with an elderly man. It was great theater. The rest of his game was non-descript enough that I can be excited about this. Jayson Megna – F Megna looked absolutely lost on the PK when he never even looked at David Pastrnak. Playing that forward spot, whose responsibility is some kind of defense on Pastrnak’s position, how do you never even look at him? Ridiculous. Then he missed Blidh streaking to the net for what should have been a great scoring chance. Instead, Megna dumped the puck in the corner. Gross. Alex Newhook – C+ I really didn’t mind Newhook’s game. It’s obvious he isn’t a main play-driver at this stage of his career but his legs were going and he was involved in a decent chunk of scoring chances. You’d love to see him finish a few of them, but in a game like this, you’ll take the positives where they exist. Logan O’Connor – D He’s been so solid and reliable that it was a little jarring to see a game where he simply wasn’t very effective. I’m not even sure what to say beyond that. The Avs are in a position right now where a weak LOC game makes it that much harder for them to win. Mikko Rantanen – C There was no moose to be found on this night. He wasn’t driving the net, imposing his will, or doing any of the power forward things we know he’s capable of. That isn’t uncommon, but plenty of nights he doesn’t do that he still does something spectacular. He didn’t do that tonight, but again I’m giving the top guys (mostly) free passes in this game. Devon Toews – D Toews is the one Colorado star player I’m going to be a little tougher on. He made some great plays defensively and his offense even had its moments, but so many mistakes were made. So many blown coverages, poor reads, and puck bobbles. There were some good moments, but a ton of bad ones. One the ice for four of the five Boston goals and got absolutely crushed in the fancystats.