Avs Game 35 Grades - Special Teams Mess

The Avalanche came out strong but were sloppy after the first ten minutes, and lost the special teams better, losing to the Toronto Maple Leafs 7-4.

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

Tyson Barrie (C) – Barrie had a so so night.  I was surprised to see he ended up with 4 shots on goal.  He passed up a very clear shooting opportunity, and instead, carried the puck down low and tried to pass it to a covered forward in the second period.

Francois Beauchemin (D) – A very rough night for the veteran.  He stuck his leg out on the Leafs forward and took a penalty prior to the Leafs second goal, and got caught pinching on the Leafs fourth goal.

Blake Comeau (F) – A very ugly game for Comeau.  He lost two faceoffs right before goals against, gave the puck away for a breakaway goal, and took another penalty, which the Leafs ended up scoring on.

Matt Duchene (D) – The top line looked really sloppy tonight.  I thought Duchene was trying to do far too much on his own this evening, and made a few turnovers by passing a second too late.

Mikhail Grigorenko (B) – The 4th line had quite a few quality chances tonight.  Grigorenko had a mini breakaway in the third, as well as a 2 on 1 but scored on neither.  He goal or two would have gone a long way for him.  He was a 92% possession player tonight.

Nate Guenin (INC) – Guenin was hurt in the second period and didn’t return from what Roy called “probably” a concussion.

Nick Holden (D) – When Nick Holden is your ice time leader by a few minutes, it probably wasn’t meant to be a great night.

Jarome Iginla (C) – Iginla started out really hot, but faded badly as the game went on.  He had a great first shift, and made a nice play to set up Tanguay before Mitchell’s goal, but didn’t do a whole lot to prevent Bozak from scoring the Leafs fourth goal.

Erik Johnson (C) – He had a goal and an assist, but struggled a good bit defensively at both even strength and on the penalty kill.

Gabriel Landeskog (C+) – Easily the best player on the top line.  The backhand pass he made to Johnson for the Avs third goal was tremendous.  Needs to be more consistent with shooting the puck.

Nathan MacKinnon (F) – MacKinnon is slumping hard.  He took some bad angles to the puck tonight, and missed the net on some nice chances.  The Avs have somehow managed to get by with him slumping, but it can’t continue.

Andreas Martinsen (C+) – Martinsen threw a few big hits tonight, one on JVR and another on Phaneuf.  Other than that, he was very quiet, as was his line.

Cody McLeod (B) – Hard to not like what the 4th line did tonight.  McLeod threw a few big hits to go with a nice play on the first goal.

John Mitchell (B-) – It almost seemed like he didn’t want to shoot on his goal.  He played well, but he’s passing up way too many shooting opportunities right now.

Zach Redmond (C+) – He got to play more tonight with Guenin’s injury, and was up and down.  He makes questionable decisions with the puck in the defensive zone, but is obviously very good in the offensive zone.

Jack Skille (A) – Two more goals for the offseason pickup.  It will be very interesting to see how the Avs handle his contract situation.  They’ve gone overboard with extending depth players over the last few years, and cannot do that again.

Carl Soderberg (C-) – Not a great night for Soderberg.  He lost his man on the Leafs 6th goal as he gave Gardiner way too much time and space to get a shot away.

Alex Tanguay (B) – He seems to be starting to wake up a bit.  Made some nice passes tonight, including the pass to Mitchell for his goal.

Semyon Varlamov (F) – It’s hard to blame him on a lot of the Leafs goals tonight, but when you give up 6 goals on just 21 shots, it obviously was not your night.

The Avs are off until Sunday, when they face off against the Arizona Coyotes.  The game starts at 6 PM MST.