Avs-Lightning player grades: It happened

Player grades for the Colorado Avalanche’s fiasco in Tampa Bay.

Sven Andrighetto (C-) – One of the few guys I didn’t think was terrible. He wasn’t good but he also wasn’t an active detriment tonight. Not the kind of game he needed to convince the coaching staff he belongs in the lineup every night.

Tyson Barrie (F) – Holy moly. What happened here? He wasn’t quite as rough as his partner but he was all over the place in a bad way tonight.

Matt Calvert (D) – This line was only kind of bad on a night when the team was terribad. Calvert was almost entirely forgettable, which was a positive on a night like this.

Ian Cole (F-) – There isn’t a low enough grade for the disaster that was Cole’s night tonight. Turnovers, bad defense, mind-boggling decisions. Cole did it all tonight in what was easily his worst game in an Avs uniform since his first preseason game when Avs fans wondered if he was even competent. Tonight, he reminded them of those initial impressions. He was so, so bad. There aren’t enough words to describe how bad. It won’t be hard to bounce back from this utter fiasco.

J.T. Compher (D) – If nothing else, he was literally fighting through the end even when it was a blowout. He’s a feisty dude at all times. He has no chill whatsoever, which is at least entertaining to watch in blowouts.

Samuel Girard (D) – Cole, Barrie, and Johnson got the lion’s share of being on the wrong end of the goals tonight but Girard was sneakily terrible, too. It started from the very beginning of the game and he was just awful. It never really got better, either.

Erik Johnson (D) – You’ll be shocked to read that Johnson was terrible tonight, like all of Colorado’s defense.

Tyson Jost (D+) – Why you hacking at a guy’s hands two minutes into the game? It was a soft call, no doubt, but that’s a silly and avoidable penalty to take.

Vladislav Kamenev (INC) – The best grade of the night and only because he didn’t finish the game due to injury. We’re hoping for the best on an injury update from Kamenev, who looked like he was in significant pain.

Alexander Kerfoot (D) – He’s not even pretending like he’s going to shoot right now. He’s blatantly looking to pass even in the most dangerous of areas. That has to be frustrating for a coaching staff that has been trying to drill a more aggressive mindset into his offensive approach.

Gabriel Landeskog (D) – The top line is not immune to the trash grades of this game. They were terrible, too.

Nathan MacKinnon (D+) – I will give MacKinnon the plus because his goal was deceptive as can be. Normally I think that’s a really soft goal but MacKinnon baited Domingue hard by showing pass until a lightning (har har) release found caught him off guard and gave the Avs their one goal against the Lightning this season.

Patrik Nemeth (D) – Of all the bad defense played tonight, I didn’t notice Nemeth as part of it as much as you’d expect.

Matt Nieto (D) – This line was only kind of bad. I mentioned that, right?

Mikko Rantanen (F) – I actually really did not like Rantanen at all tonight. Blind passes became turnovers and he just wasn’t doing much of the positive that we’ve seen from him so many times this season. He kept his point streak alive, I guess. That’s neat.

Carl Soderberg (D) – One great game in Florida matched by a terrible game in Florida. He did come quite close to scoring his 12th of the season.

Semyon Varlamov (F) – Look, this wasn’t on Varlamov. You watch the goals against and you see he was consistently hung out to dry tonight. The defense in front of him was practice-caliber and Varlamov didn’t stand a chance. But I can’t give a guy who got lit up for five goals anything other than an F. It his job to stop pucks. He didn’t even if he didn’t get any help.

Colin Wilson (D) – The most I saw from Wilson tonight was him skating hard to clear a puck with about four minutes left in the third period. That’s damning.

Nikita Zadorov (D-) – These are the kinds of games where the coaching staff could choose to give some guys extra minutes just to get through the game and be done with it. Instead, Zadorov took a couple of silly penalties to mostly dissuade the staff from giving him more ice.