Avs Game 46 Grades - Last Minute Loss

The Avalanche played a strong defensive game, but two breakdowns cost them the game, and they lost 2-1 to the last place Columbus Blue Jackets.

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

Tyson Barrie (C+) – Barrie had a good game defensively, but in a tight game like this, the Avs need him to be a game breaker offensively, and he wasn’t tonight.

Francois Beauchemin (B) – The veteran had a really strong game, outside of a penalty early in the third period.  He’s been a nice outlet for the young Zadorov, and looks much better with a partner that can move the puck.

Chris Bigras (A) – He played very limited minutes, and seemed to get sheltered a good bit, but it’s hard not to be impressed by him.  His pinch in the neutral zone that led to Wagner’s goal was a sign of his high hockey IQ, and he made several small smart plays through the night.  He finished with another positive possession game.

Blake Comeau (D) – Comeau had a good night defensively, and was physical, but he is beyond frustrating with the puck right now.  He’s holding onto it too long, and he’s neither shooting the puck or passing it to his teammates.

Matt Duchene (B-) – Duchene led the Avs with 6 shots on goal, but on a night like tonight, you need your stars to step up and score a goal and the Avs didn’t get anything from there stars.

Nick Holden (C) – Holden was awful in the first period.  He lost his man on the first goal, and had some other moments where he was caught out of position.  After that, he calmed down a lot, and made some good plays at both ends.

Jarome Iginla (C+) – Another night where he played limited minutes at even strength, but he was able to get in on the Avs only goal of the night with a perfect pass to Wagner.

Gabriel Landeskog (D) – Landy is having a lot of troubles with the puck, and tonight was not a good night for him in the offensive zone.  That line, in general, struggled offensively.

Nathan MacKinnon (C-) – This game could have been a lot different if MacKinnon was able to bury his chance in the third that hit the crossbar, but he didn’t even register another shot all night.  For your top center, that’s just not good enough.

Andreas Martinsen (D) – The shine is coming off Martinsen’s game a bit.  He had a few more hits tonight, but had more issues with the puck, turning the puck over several times.  His ice time has continued to drop through the last two weeks.

Cody McLeod (C) – McLeod had a decent game tonight, but if you’re going to try to block that shot at the end of the game, you have to get it all and not just some of it.  There was no Columbus player in sight of Pickard, so he had no issue seeing it, so McLeod just has to be smarter.

John Mitchell (D) – Another frustrating game from Mitchell, where he turns the puck over too much just by taking too long to make a decision with the puck.

Calvin Pickard (B) – Like the game against the Devils, I don’t think he was tested much, but I don’t know what he could have done on either goal, as one was a player being left all alone in front and the other was a tip by his own teammate.

Zach Redmond (B) – The third pairing was really good tonight, even though they weren’t given very difficult minutes.  I don’t recall a single good scoring chance by Columbus against them.  A nice bounce back game for Redmond.

Jack Skille (C) – Skille had a great chance at the end of the game that he would have liked to bury, but other than that, had a pretty quiet evening.

Carl Soderberg (D) – The three players on this line combined for only three shots on goal tonight, and while they were strong defensively, the Avs needed more offensively.

Alex Tanguay (F) – After a terrific game on Thursday, Tanguay was back to being terrible, taking yet another offensive zone penalty, and killing plays offensively.

Chris Wagner (B-) – It’s nice to see him come into the lineup and immediately show the energy that he displayed when he first came to Colorado.  The goal he scored was a nice simple play where he crashed the net, but I found his line really struggled defensively and found themselves pinned in far too often.  Both he and Martinsen had the worst possession numbers on the team.

Nikita Zadorov (C-) – Z had a rough first period, with some poor gap control on the first goal and a rough turnover (albeit deflected by a Blue Jackets forward) during the 4 on 4 play.  After that, he played much better.  He was a 29% possession player after the first period but managed to finish the night at 46%, showing the improvement.  Hopefully Roy is willing to let him work through the mistakes he will make.

The Avs head to Winnipeg for an important game against the Jets on Monday night.  The game starts at 6 PM MST.