Avs Game 46 Grades - It's Time for a Break

The Colorado Avalanche head into the All Star Break on pace for a measly 50 points, after another loss at home, this time to the Vancouver Canucks.

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

Francois Beauchemin (C-) – Is it his fault he played TWENTY NINE minutes tonight?  Probably not, and he got exposed badly doing so.  Got beat out of the corner prior to the first goal and just wandered away from the puck.  Got caught doing nothing on the game winner as well.

Joe Colborne (C+) – Colborne had a bit more jump tonight, and did some good work down low.  Nearly got on the board with a trickler early in the game.

Blake Comeau (C) – A quiet game for Comeau.  Don’t remember much jump, but at least he didn’t take a penalty.

Matt Duchene (B-) – He came back, and although he looked a little sluggish at times, played well.  Made a nice play at the blueline on Nieto’s goal.

Eric Gelinas (D) – He had the worst possession numbers on the team, which doesn’t happen often, but he got 12 minutes, so at least he was able to break a minor sweat tonight.

Cody Goloubef (C) – It seems very likely he’s going to stick around next year, and that wouldn’t be so bad.  After a rough start he has settled down nicely.

Mikhail Grigorenko (B) – Are we going to see another late season surge from Grigorenko, just like last year?  And will it be a tease heading into next season?  I’d rather see that then passive play, but hopefully he can keep playing well.

Jarome Iginla (D) – Two times in the first period, he got the puck at the offensive blueline, not moving, and just whipped it across the ice blindly.  He’s checked out on this team.

Gabriel Landeskog (D) – You can’t have your captain taking two penalties in the third period of a tight game, when you’ve been a mess that period all year long.  He didn’t put nearly enough shots towards the net tonight, but did OK on the cycle.

Nathan MacKinnon (C) – Didn’t like the way that MacKinnon tried to go through defenders instead of going around them and creating tonight, but his faceoff win lead to the opening goal.

Andreas Martinsen (C) – His beautiful face got messed up on that big hit in the 3rd period.  He’s showing more flashes of skill of late, but it makes it even more frustrating to remember his struggles.

John Mitchell (D) – Someone take him.

Matt Nieto (A) – Best player on the ice for the Avs.  He had 7 shots on goal, and was good on the cycle all night.  If you know where to go in the offensive zone, you can play with skilled players, even if you aren’t super skilled yourself.

Calvin Pickard (B+) – He made numerous saves in the second period to keep the team in it, and played really well all night.

Mikko Rantanen (B) – Nice to see him get his first goal in forever.  Even more impressive than the goal itself was his pass right before the goal.

Carl Soderberg (C) – I imagine he’s a little frustrated playing with grinders when he did well with skilled guys last year.  His effort has picked up over the last month.

Fedor Tyutin (B-) – Tyutin played another solid game, until he was one of three players within a sticks length of the game winning goal who did absolutely nothing.

Patrick Wiercioch (D) – The third pairing had a rough night, but it’s frustrating seeing Beauchemin play 29 minutes while Wiercioch plays 13.

Nikita Zadorov (C+) – He actually had a pretty strong game…but the turnover on the second goal was fugly.  Those need to come out of his game.  He made some strong plays offensively, and picked up his third assist in two games.  Somehow stat trackers didn’t have him on the ice for a single high danger scoring chance against, so obviously they felt that second goal was (correctly) handed to the Canucks.

The Avalanche return after the All Star break to play the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday.  The game starts at 8 PM MST.