Avs Game 55 Grades: Arizon-huh

Nicholas Aube-Kubel – C

He played. It’s getting harder and harder to grade him because he is barely playing these days when he is in the lineup. He did have a nice attempted rush up the ice in the third period.

Andre Burakovsky – D

Just a tough night all over the place, and it started on the opening face-off with a bad pass to Toews that led to some chaos. Didn’t produce much in terms of offense, got demoted to the second line when things weren’t going well, and completely lost his guy on the first Coyotes goal, as he was just floating around in the slot covering no one.

J.T. Compher – C

Had a good chance in the first on a two on one where Arizona’s goalie (whose name I am not spelling Ed’s note: It’s Vejmelka!) gave him nothing. He was blessed with a right-handed shot, which gets him out there on empty net chances.

Pavel Francouz – C+

The Coyotes didn’t get a ton of particularly dangerous chances, but the two that went in were pretty tough. Not his fault by any means for the loss but tough to lose in Arizona either way.

Samuel Girard – C

Sam does a lot for this team in terms of breaking it out, and it’s obvious that he looks a lot better with a higher-end defensive partner, but there’s more there than what we are seeing of late. He had a few failed clears that led to extended zone time.

Darren Helm – B+

Liked Helm again. Had a nice chance in the slot in the first period, and another one in the second on the backhand. Five shot attempts and four shots on goal in a little under nine minutes is good at even strength.

Erik Johnson – C

A completely fine game overall. A bit of a step up from his previous outings. The Murray/Johnson pairing, however, was out for a goal against and provided zero offensively, so a net negative.

Jack Johnson – B

Liked JJ again. The hit in the second period was him going out of position for it, but he knows why he’s in the lineup. Had a nice block on a 3 on 2 in the first period to kill a scoring chance for the Coyotes.

Tyson Jost – C

Right now he is just existing. The only thing I remember from his game was he and Roussell getting into it at a face-off in the second period. I like when Jost gets into stuff like that, because it usually gets him a little more involved in the game, although that didn’t happen much here.

Nazem Kadri – C+

Funny that the second line had the best shot share numbers because they looked like they took a step back for the most part. Kadri still produced seven shot attempts at even strength.

Gabriel Landeskog – C

Hit the post late on his best chance of the evening by far, but like I’ll say with MacK, I love the competitiveness, but not sure I need him throwing hands at the end of a game with 3 seconds left against a bottom of the barrel team. Save those hands for another day.

Kurtis MacDermid – INC

He played a little bit more, but still under my five-minute threshold. I can see why Ghost was angry after MacDermid hit him because he never touched the puck and takes a big hit.

Nathan MacKinnon – B

He was really good again and had plenty of chances, including a two on one in the first period that he couldn’t bury. I get that he was mad at the end of the game (I would be too), but don’t need him breaking his hand on some scrubbo’s face in March.

Cale Makar – C+

Had some good looks, most of which were in the second period, but hasn’t been able to buy a goal of late. Still picks up an assist, as is tradition. I thought for sure he was going to leave the game in the third period, as he looked to be laboring with his arm after a hit from Ritchie. Stuck in there, though.

Ryan Murray – C-

I didn’t really have anything against his game, but he was out there for the two goals against. He did his part on tying up his guy on the first goal. He continues to join the play offensively, and then plays just die.

Alex Newhook – C+

Stinks that he’s been so good defensively and a small lapse (great pass by Keller though) beats him on the game-winner. Still led the Avs in shot share, although there were some missed passes from him, including trying to force a pass to Kadri on a two on one in the first.

Logan O’Connor – C

He really looks like a guy who may never score again and it’s wild. At one point in the third, he had the puck in the offensive zone and just spun around and lost his edge and the puck. Had a nice feed to Compher at one point, but nothing is coming easy for him.

Mikko Rantanen – B+

Felt like the most dangerous player on the ice for the Avs, moving through the defense, creating chances off his off-wing. Hit Landeskog late when it went off the post and had his own chances but couldn’t bury anything. Some nights it’s like that, especially when he’s had worse showings and picked up a few assists.

Devon Toews – B-

Another goal, and it comes from MacKinnon taking up so much attention at that spot up high at the blue line, which left Toews wide open. Top pair is really driving the offense from the blue line right now, they could use some help from other guys.