Avs Game 47 Grades: Goodbye division?

Pierre-Edouard Bellemare – D

The only fourth-liner who didn’t look completely awful, except he took a penalty early when the team had no momentum, so that doesn’t help.

Andre Burakovsky – D

I think I saw Burky take more snapshots tonight than I have all year, and none of them were that great, one sailing well over the net. On the powerplay, just too indecisive, and taking a half-second too long to make decisions.

J.T. Compher – D

I understand the Avs are shorthanded, but Compher leading all non-top line forwards in time on ice is wild. Avs just need to stack up that top powerplay unit with Kadri and hope that something good happens for him there rather than Compher.

Devan Dubnyk – F

He’s not making me feel better about the pickup than I did at the time. Team needs a save on the opening shot, but the second goal was brutal, the third one was already the second or third goal from behind the net he’s given up, and the fourth one was an insanely slow reaction. Not looking great right now.

Samuel Girard – F

After a rough one, he followed it up with possibly an even worse game. Bouncing puck was tough to handle early but let his man get behind him. The play right before his penalty was horrendous though, as he got way too fancy behind his own net and turned it over.

Ryan Graves – B

Gave him grief on social media about winding up and taking too long to let his shot go (he had four shots blocked), and then the next shift he moves to the middle of the ice and lets a wrister go and it bounces off a guy and in. More of that please. The Avs did dominate with him out there but not the guy you want unleashing eight shots on net and pinching when Makar is the one who has to stay back.

Tyson Jost – C-

The move to wing seemed to kill some of his mojo, as I noticed him losing some battles. Tough luck late with the puck off the post. Get some guys back and get him back at center.

Nazem Kadri – F

Turns it over at the blue line, it leads to a chance against, then loses the next face-off and takes a penalty. He’s just hurting the team right now. That’s not even mentioning taking way too long to unload a shot, which causes it to get blocked and go the other way for the goal that killed any momentum the Avs had.

Martin Kaut – F

The Martin Kaut we saw last year has not made an appearance in the NHL this season. Was not on the ice for a single shot attempt at the Vegas net, and made some weak plays on the boards.

Gabriel Landeskog – C

The top line dominated the puck most of the evening after the opening goal but just couldn’t bury any of their chances. Landeskog had some good chances in front early but Fleury was up to the task.

Nathan MacKinnon – B

Dominant shift in the first just before the Avs tied it up to get things going after a slower start. After a really tough game against the Blues, he was much better, but he can’t do it all himself.

Cale Makar – C

Had some good looks, including a pinch early in the game that he put right into Fleury’s chest pad, but nothing too dynamic. Other than MacKinnon, he’s the one guy who can take over the game and it didn’t happen against Vegas. Was not out there for goals against like the other top defenders, though.

Patrik Nemeth – F

Patrik Nemeth trying to skate around Mark Stone went about as you would expect it to go in the third period. Not feeling good about that pickup. Super soft play on the game-winner along the boards.

Valeri Nichushkin – C

Surprisingly soft play along the wall on the Stone goal that ended up being the game winner, as he failed to get the puck deep and it turned around. He had one play in the second period with a clear path to the net and instead of taking it in for a shot, he dropped it to Kadri, the coldest player on the team. I know you want to get Kadri going, but power that thing in.

Liam O’Brien – F

I saw enough long before this game, but the fact this guy has played more NHL games than the majority of the Avs forward callups is astonishing. Bad penalty, net negative impact, and his lack of NHL skating showed up on his breakaway out of the box.

Kiefer Sherwood – C

The hit at the end showed some spunk, and I didn’t mind his game again. I’m sure the organization would love to see otherwise, but he’s certainly outplayed Kaut when it comes time to decide who stays in or not.

Carl Soderberg – C+

Picked up his first point with the team, and I still like a lot of the things he’s doing out there.  Honestly, five shots on goal out of Carl is pretty rare to get, so happy that he’s shooting.

Conor Timmins – D

Was relatively low event, but managed to be out there on the game-winner. Was in a tough spot because of Nemeth’s turnover but got caught pretty far on one side of the ice.

Devon Toews – C

Goal was nice, hopefully starts to build a little bit of momentum for him, but still hoping for a little bit more out of him. Contrary to what NBC tried to say, he did not tip in the second goal, as he completely missed it.