Avs Game 7 Player Grades - Another Blown Lead

The Avs held a 3-2 lead heading into the third period this evening, but for the second time at the Pepsi Center this season, they blew a lead and ended up losing to the previously winless Columbus Blue Jackets 4-3.  The Avs are now just 1-3-1 at home this season.

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

Francois Beauchemin (B) – The veteran had a solid night, leading the team in ice time again with almost 25 minutes.  As the season goes on, Roy may want to start to limit the amount of ice Beauchemin sees, as he faded towards the end of the year with Anaheim last season.

Blake Comeau (C-) – The Comeau we saw the first few games of the year was hitting everything, shooting from everywhere, and causing havoc all of the ice.  His game has significantly faded, as he’s not hitting or shooting as much, and tonight he managed to take not one, but two costly penalties in the final 5 minutes of the third period to slow down any chance of a comeback the Avs had.  He did manage to pick up an assist on the Iginla goal in the 2nd period.

Matt Duchene (B) – It has not been a great start to the year for Duchene, but the last two games, he’s starting to come around.  He was the best player on the ice for either team in the first period, and made a nice breakout pass to spring Comeau and Iginla on a 2 on 1 in the second, which led to a goal.  He needs to continue to improve if the Avs are going to turn it around.

Dennis Everberg (C) – A very quiet night for the young Swede making his debut this season.  He had a few nice shifts in the second period, but for the most part was invisible.  The third line for the Avs did not have a good night in general.

Brandon Gormley (B-) – A fantastic first two periods may get overshadowed by a rough third period for Gormley.  He bobbled the puck at the offensive blueline and then turned it over in the defensive zone prior to the Blue Jackets game tying goal, and then he lost his man in front of the net on the game winning goal.  Still, he’s shown enough hockey IQ and puck moving ability to stay in the lineup beyond Barrie’s return.

Mikhail Grigorenko (B-) – I don’t really think Grigorenko is hurting the team at the moment, and that’s OK for a 4th line center.  He took a penalty tonight, but he also drew one.  He was out there for an Avs goal, but also was on the ice for the Blue Jackets tying goal.  I’d like to see him get a bit more ice time, but it may take some time for that to happen.  Roy is bringing the young Russian along very slowly.

Nate Guenin (C) – Guenin, by Guenin standards, did not have a bad game tonight.  His ice time was also very limited, which is what you have to do with the guy.  I believe Brandon Gormley should stay in the lineup with Barrie’s suspension over, but the coaching staff may choose to keep Guenin in just for his role on the PK.  We will find out soon enough.

Nick Holden (C) – The physical Nick Holden we’ve seen through the first 6 games kind of disappeared tonight, and his game dipped down a bit as well.  He got caught on the first goal against as he fumbled a pass that led to a 2 on 1, but I think it was more John Mitchell giving him an awful pass more than Holden messing it up.  Still, mistakes at the offensive blueline typically don’t end well for your team, and it cost them on that one.  The good news is that we saw less Holden tonight than we have recently, as he only played 18 minutes.

Jarome Iginla (B-) – Iggy managed to get his first even strength goal on the season, and chipped in a beautiful assist to MacKinnon in the second period.  Still, he looks slow out there, and tends to be a liability in the defensive zone.  The Avs will need more from him at even strength moving forward.

Erik Johnson (B) – EJ still does not look 100% to me.  His skating is not as explosive as it’s been the last two seasons.  He is coming off a major knee injury, and also missed the end of camp with a groin problem, and I think that’s still bothering him.  He was the only Avs defenseman to be on the ice for more shot attempts for than against.  We really have not seen EJ join the rush as much as he has since Roy has come on board, and it might have to do with a nagging injury.

Gabriel Landeskog (C-) – Good news first: Landy registered 7 shots on goal tonight, and attempted 3 more.  For some reason, he hasn’t been shooting a lot this season, and he needs to do more of what he did tonight.  Unfortunately, he did not have a very good game otherwise.  He took two penalties, one of which negated a long 5 on 3 for the Avs.  He also was fumbling the puck all night long.  Landy has no points in his last 4 games, and obviously the Avs have struggled in those games.

Nathan MacKinnon (B+) – I’m pretty convinced that by the end of the year, MacK will be a top 10 center in the NHL.  The move that needed to be made has already paid off.  He was great in the faceoff circle tonight, winning 63% of his draws, and for the most part, was good defensively.  His only hiccup came on the game winning goal for Columbus, as he was on the wrong side of the puck in the offensive zone, and it led to an odd man rush the other way for the Blue Jackets.  Other than that, MacK has probably been the Avs best forward.  His line was the only line for the Avs to end the night with positive possession numbers.

Cody McLeod (B) – McLeod has been fine this year.  He’s got better linemates to work with, which helps, but his ice time has been limited, which it needs to be.  He took a few shifts with Duchene tonight, which just should not happen, but that’s not the fault of McLeod.  The 4th line has been a bright spot this year.

John Mitchell (D) – To the surprise of no one, Mitchell’s game has fallen off more and more as Roy has started to give him more ice time.  As a 4th line center, he’s tremendous, but if you start to use him more, the issues with his game start to appear more and more.  He gave Holden an awful bouncing pass on the first goal, and he was a liability on the PP this evening.  Winning only 30% of his faceoffs isn’t going to make things any better either.  It may be time to put him back on the 4th line, but I’m not sure who you replace him with.

Jack Skille (A) – What more can you ask for from Skille than what’s he’s given?  He’s been a great pickup for the 4th line, and his goal tonight was beautiful, sliding around the defenseman at the blueline and unleashing a wicked wrister over Bobrovsky’s glove hand.  He saw time with Landeskog and MacKinnon towards the end of the game, and probably had the Avs best chance to tie the game.  Roy may get tempted to move him up in the lineup, which I’m not sure is a great idea.  Once you start to overextend your 4th line players, the issues in their games become more noticeable, as we’ve seen with John Mitchell.

Carl Soderberg (C-) – After a few solid games from Soderberg, he took a step back tonight.  As mentioned before, his line was not very good, but Soderberg had a chance to make a difference in the second period and missed an empty net off a Guenin rebound.  4 assist in 7 games isn’t bad, but it’s time for Soderberg to do more at even strength offensively.

Alex Tanguay (F) – Tanguay has been a floater this season, and tonight was no different.  He’s losing battles, and not contributing to the team in any way.  His stat line tonight kind of shows that: No shot attempts, no hits, no blocked shots, and a -1.  He was moved off the MacKinnon line in the third period, and we’ll see if that continues on Tuesday.

Semyon Varlamov (D) – When your team gets an early 1-0 lead, the last thing you want is your goalie giving up a soft goal.  That’s what Varly did tonight.  It was a 2 on 1, but Gormley had taken away the pass and Jenner had moved himself into a pretty poor angle and still managed to beat Varly.  Varly’s rebound control was bad all night long.  He’s making himself too small in the net, at the moment.

Nikita Zadorov (C) – Zadorov has had a fine start to the year, but that was probably his weakest performance in an Avs uniform.  He didn’t show any jump offensively, and took himself out of position for hits too often.  He went for a big hip check at center ice in the third period, and when he missed, the Blue Jackets were able to create a few chances in the Avs end with sustained pressure.  I don’t like that he’s being saddled with Nate Guenin as a partner, and hopefully that changes against Florida.

The Avs return to the ice on Tuesday as they hit the East Coast for the first time this season, and take on the Florida Panthers.  The game starts at 5:30 MST.