Avs Game 59 Grades: Beat 'em at their own game

Pierre-Edouard Bellemare – B-

Bellemare had a strong night playing on the third line. During the epic battle of nothingness along the wall in the second period, Belly battled with the much bigger Matt Martin and didn’t take any guff. Had a nice backhand pass to Kaut in the slot at one point as well.

Andre Burakovsky – B+

Another strong night from Burky, with a beautiful shot over the glove hand of Varlamov and a crossbar in the first period as well. All in all, he attempted 7 shots on the evening. Not bad.

Ian Cole – C+

Cole had one of those games where, outside of his penalty, you probably had no idea Cole even played in this one. Just a very quiet, steady night from the veteran.

J.T. Compher – A

The second line was easily the Avs best in this one, which was nice to see after some rough outings. Compher won the face-off leading to Donskoi’s goal, but because three other guys touched it in a span of two seconds, he didn’t get an assist. That line was tasked with Barzal and did a great job.

Joonas Donskoi – A

Easily Donskoi’s best game in a long time, as he had energy and was great along the boards. Picked up his first goal since coming back from injury on a deflection and battled through a lot to give the Avs a strong game.

Pavel Francouz – A-

Francouz didn’t have to make any spectacular saves in this one, which says a lot about how the team in front of him played. He gave up one late, but Frankie’s problem of late has been the “bad” goal, and he avoided that one in this game.

Samuel Girard – B+

Lots of tornade’s in this one, and he was flying in the first period. He ended the night with seven shot attempts, but six of them came in the first period. He still just cannot get his shot through traffic, but at least he was creating things.

Ryan Graves – B+

Like Cole, a quiet night for Graves where a lot of the play was just kept to the outside. As he is one to do, picked up another assist on a delayed penalty that helped seal the game.

Erik Johnson – C+

Some of his offensive zone decisions were a little strange in this one, but not a bad night overall for him. Made some nice blocks in the defensive zone and one big one on the PK in front of Francouz.

Vladislav Kamenev – C-

I did not like that fourth line tonight. Just a lot of chasing and not a lot of time spent in the Islanders end. Kamenev was pretty quiet in this one overall.

Martin Kaut – C+

For a first NHL game, not bad at all. His second period was his best period overall and did a lot of good work along the boards. Had two good chances but missed the net on both. You could tell the pace was gassing him a little bit, as he took pretty short shifts.

Tyson Jost – C-

Just looked a step behind everything in this one. The effort was there but not a whole lot of good came from it.

Gabriel Landeskog – A-

That felt like Landy’s best and most complete game in a while, and with some of the guys missing, was really needed. Picked up a goal right in front of Varly, which looked very similar to what he would do last year, and won 75% of the face-offs he took.

Nathan MacKinnon – A-

Another ho-hum two-assist night for MacK, both of the assists being primary. I look at the penalty Barzal drew, which was iffy to say the least, and wonder why MacKinnon doesn’t get more calls like that, because it seemingly happens on every shift.

Cale Makar – A

He didn’t get an assist because of Landy’s tip, but Makar did all the work, going around the world in the third period and making the Islanders, in general, look silly. Two more points for the super rookie.

Valeri Nichushkin – A+

What a monster. Through two periods, the Islanders didn’t attempt a single shot with him on the ice. Had a ridiculous back check to knock an Islanders player off the puck in the second period, and just looked in total control on the ice most of the night. Struck iron in the third, which would have given him a two-point night.

Matt Nieto – C+

Nothing bad happened while Nieto was out there, but it’s hard to remember anything standing out. That sounds like a typical game from Nieto, and most nights, I struggle to remember much of happening from him.

T.J. Tynan – D

It’s clear he looks out of place. The Avs got dominated with him on the ice in terms of shot metrics. The Avs should consider swapping him out so he can go back to helping Eagles.

Nikita Zadorov – C+

Avs moved Zadorov up to match up against Barzal, and the Islanders star didn’t do much tonight against Z. He had a great first but slipped a bit after. Took a penalty, which seemed iffy, but also drew one by jumping up offensively. Don’t like seeing when he gets outmuscled by guys like Eberle for the puck. Just shouldn’t happen.