Avs/Golden Knights Game 3 Grades: Compete lacking

Pierre-Edouard Bellemare – C

Bellemare made some nice plays in the defensive zone, but like most of the team, spent a ton of time there. He’s got a surprisingly hard slapper and got some use out of it on the Soderberg goal, as Fleury wasn’t able to handle the shot.

Andre Burakovsky – F

Got moved up to the top line in the third period, but mainly out of necessity to just try to get something going. He didn’t really look any better. Turnovers, bad passes, just not a lot going on. His strongest moment actually was a back check on one of his first shifts. After that, there’s nothing.

J.T. Compher – D

A nice shot block late, and did manage to win the face-off at the end of the game to give the Avs another chance, but the offense is non-existent. His passes to his linemates have been way too soft.

Joonas Donskoi – D+

Continues to take a beating in the slot on the powerplay, but at even strength, he was relegated to the fourth line in the third period. Did make a nice pass back to the point on the Rantanen goal.

Sam Girard – D

Net front is where he can be exposed, and that’s what happened on the first Vegas goal. Just got purely outmuscled by Karlsson in front. Had a few moments on the breakout but the fact is, Vegas has not allowed the Avs to break out cleanly at all for five periods.

Ryan Graves – D

Showed some great patience on the Soderberg goal with a breakout, resetting behind his net and making a backhand pass to Sherwood to spring a 3 on 2. Didn’t love his game a ton other than that. That’s now two games in a row where he’s blown a tire out of nowhere going to retrieve a puck. Bizarre stuff.

Philipp Grubauer – A+

Well, can’t blame him for much that happened tonight. The Avs aren’t giving him much time to breathe. The bank shot goal is unfortunate, but I swear the Avs have given up more breakaways in the last five periods than they had in the prior month. He’s been there for all of them too.

Tyson Jost – D

This honestly felt like his worst game in months. Looked slow, especially on the odd-man rush with Nichushkin in the second period. He could have sprung Nuke, who was ahead of him, but instead skated it himself, and Nuke had to just wait for him. Ended up being a pretty easy save for Fleury to make.

Gabriel Landeskog – F

Zero shot attempts at even strength. ZERO. That’s just not good enough. Nice hustle on the play that created the delay of game call, but beyond that, a mess.

Nathan MacKinnon – F

He had a nice pass to Rantanen in the first, which was the Avs only real decent chance of the period, but it was a little too far in front to get a good shot on net. I actually wanted to see MacK rip it from that spot. The Avs straight up rarely will win games where he is that quiet.

Cale Makar – F

The guy who looked like the best player on the planet in Game 1 looked far from it in Game 3, bobbling pucks all over the ice. The panicked shots into shin pads at the end of the game were pretty painful.

Patrik Nemeth – F

Had about three giveaways on his first shift of the night, so that should have been a sign on how the night was going to go. The Avs did not register a single shot on net with him on the ice.

Valeri Nichushkin – C-

You know, one of the few guys who had some chances and looked to be moving, but also made the brutal neutral zone turnover that led to Vegas getting offensive zone possession and scoring the first goal. Still made some nice backchecks.

Mikko Rantanen – D

He gets a point higher than his linemates for scoring a goal, and I actually liked him trying to fool Fleury at the end…because he nearly did. Still, he looked sloppy most of the night and his attempt to wind it up and go end to end in the second period ended almost immediately after he lost the puck at the red line.

Brandon Saad – D+

Had a great chance in the second, and hit the post late, but the Avs got smoked with him on the ice.  Like, absolutely hammered. They gave up 32 shot attempts in his 13 minutes of ice time. That’s a wild rate, easily the highest on the team.

Kiefer Sherwood – C-

Had some iffy moments in the defensive zone, but drew a penalty and made a nice play on the Soderberg goal with the read on the entry.

Carl Soderberg – D-

Oh wow, the only reason it isn’t an F is because he scored. Ugly game. He had an icing in the first period that was brutal, just panicking and launching it down the ice without a second thought. On the Vegas tying goal, he got lost and let Marchessault get in all alone. He knew it too, looking at his face.

Conor Timmins – D

Made some nice plays on Carrier in the defensive zone, standing him up, but then after one of them, immediately iced the puck, so it kind of canceled out. I think he only took one shift in the third period. It’s got to be Byram time soon, right?

Devon Toews – D+

Tried to join in and create some chances offensively but looked exhausted when he would join in because he spent so much time defending. In the third, he called for the puck and had a 3 on 2 but hit the red line and changed his mind completely.