Avs Game 35 Grades: In the face

Pierre-Edouard Bellemare – B+

When did Belly turn into a sniper? His last few goals have been great shots, but I’m not sure there’s been a better one than his one-timer goal tonight. Extra bonus points for blocking a shot in an 8-3 game that leads to a 2 on 0 the other way. The penalty call on him was…interesting.

Andre Burakovsky – A

A goalscorer who hasn’t been doing much goal-scoring lately. Still not a fan of him on the power play, but two goals to hopefully build his confidence moving forward, and the first one was a laser beam.

J.T. Compher – B+

Maybe that break was just what Compher needed? I asked Bednar that a few weeks back and he wondered aloud himself. Another assist, and the best shot share numbers on the team for the Avs.

Joonas Donskoi – A+

Right now he’s just a machine, playing with as much confidence as he ever has in an Avs uniform. Just before his second goal, he nearly scored another one with a great cut move to the net. Beyond just scoring goals, he’s wheeling and dealing with the puck in the offensive zone, making plays for his linemates.

Samuel Girard – A

He may set a career-high in points in a shortened season. It’s just been that kind of year for Sam. He’s doing a little bit of everything and another night where the Avs dominated with him on the ice. Just little plays like how he’s sneaking in backdoor on the first Donskoi goal just in case it pops out. That’s aggressiveness we didn’t see in past seasons.

Ryan Graves – B

He and Makar looked out of sorts for the first half of the game, letting some guys get behind them. His shot share numbers ended up great, and he’s starting to pick up assists here and there when we weren’t seeing much of that early in the season.

Philipp Grubauer – C+

Well, first shot of the game being a breakaway isn’t great, but he definitely defaulted to the standard butterfly and got beat pretty easily by the shot. Deflection shot and then a turnover in front were the other two, so not much there. The sliding glove save in the second period was absurd.

Tyson Jost – A-

At this point, we’re kind of becoming used to it with the Avs dominating play with Jost and his linemates on the ice. That happened again tonight, with the Avs outshooting the Coyotes 14-3 with Jost out there. Just a smart shot selection on his assist, and something he needs to do more of. Hard work all over the ice, and butterfingers on the bench with the water bottle toss at Donskoi’s grill. Penalties are the only minus.

Nazem Kadri – B

I’m wondering if Kadri yelled something to Saad to let the puck go on the first Burky goal, or if that was Saad just understanding the situation. Great pass by Kadri to Burky on his goal and Kadri sure seemed to think the MacKinnon incident at the end of the game was hilarious. Not sure how much I like him on that second powerplay unit.

Gabriel Landeskog – A

The Coyotes thought they had a chance to come back in the second period, and the Captain just ended it with a beautiful shot. Two more goals bring him to 10 in March, and 11 in his last 18 games. So much for that slow start.

Jacob MacDonald – B+

Got quite a few shot attempts blocked, which is kind of a thing that happens with him, as he wants to wire it at the net a lot. Love his crisp, hard passes though, and one of them led to the third goal, as he turned the puck up the ice quick to Compher.

Nathan MacKinnon – A

MacK was angry this game, and I’m not just talking about the helmet toss. He took a big hit from Goligoski and then proceeded to run around and hit every player on the ice. Then you have the incident at the end of the game, and hopefully that doesn’t take him off the ice for any games this weekend. I can never guess what the NHL is going to do. With two more assists, he’s almost up to an assist per game.

Cale Makar – C

If there was one guy I wasn’t a huge fan of tonight, it was Makar. He let quite a few plays get behind him. In the second period, his speed and skating helped him catch up to make a great play, but in the first, it was a little too nonchalant on the breakaway goal. It was similar to the opening goal against Vegas a week ago where it looked a little unlucky, but he lets up for half a second and loses it.

Valeri Nichushkin – A

Another incredible game all over the ice, and he’s starting to really rack up the points now. He’s actually producing at a better rate than he was last year, which is a surprise given his slow start. Just his ability to carry the puck into the zone with ease, and hold off defenders allows for the Avs to maintain possession pretty easily.

Logan O’Connor – INC

Managed to create a breakaway with his speed in the first and draw a penalty, but don’t think he even touched the ice after that and never came back for the second or third. Something to monitor.

Mikko Rantanen – A

Pretty sure Mikko is sick of the abuse he’s taking and is starting to stand up for himself a little bit. He’s got to be wondering how a stick being broken over him isn’t called, while him breaking his stick on someone else is (understandably) called. Ho-hum three more points.

Dan Renouf – B

What you have here is your standard good Dan Renouf game, where I can’t recall a single thing that happened with him on the ice. I’ll take it.

Brandon Saad – C+

Just a super smart play by him to just body off the defender and allow the puck to get through to Kadri on the first goal, then had the sloppy turnover on the final Coyotes goal. He nearly had a power rush up the ice in the second, but another night with no shots on goal. Been a little too quiet of late.

Devon Toews – B-

22 minutes seems like a light night for him, but when you consider how much of it was on the penalty kill, it’s probably a tougher night on the body than it would seem. Quiet night with his only point coming filling in for Makar on a late powerplay.