Avs-Panthers player grades: Overtime strikes again

Sven Andrighetto (C-) – Back to the fourth line, back to mostly disappearing. Shot metrics were nice, I guess.

Tyson Barrie (C+) – He was on for two of the goals against but I didn’t think his defense was necessarily the problem on either play but there were mistakes galore from him tonight. He pitched in with two assists and could have had more with a little finish from teammates.

Gabriel Bourque (D) – He played and was generally ineffective. I’m not sure why he was slotted back into the lineup but here we are. He can’t be taking penalties when the only argument for playing him is his PK ability.

Derick Brassard (A) – Zero practices with the Avs and only a general understanding of Colorado’s systems and he produced a goal and had several shots in the process. This was a solid debut and if the Avs get this player most nights, they’ll be plenty happy with the trade.

Matt Calvert (C-) – Had two good scoring chances in the third but didn’t quite make the plays. Those are the moments where you really notice the ceiling on Calvert’s skill. Right place, right time, just can’t consistently find the net with a skill play.

J.T. Compher (D+) – Picked up an assist on the Jost goal but otherwise, I felt Compher was pretty lacking tonight. Some nice bursts of speed but the substance was lacking.

Sheldon Dries (C-) – I don’t have a strong opinion of the fourth line in this game. It was generally quiet and didn’t do much, which is a big step back from what they had been getting from Greer and Agozzino in previous games. I don’t understand why they went away from that but I won’t hold it against the guys who did play tonight when I didn’t think they were a big problem.

Samuel Girard (A-) – I thought G was great tonight and really was locked in offensively. He was pushing the pace, creating, and firing pucks at the net when it made sense to. He was robbed by a great glove save from Luongo in OT.

Ryan Graves (B-) –  This one is tough. On one hand, there was a myriad of mistakes, Graves got crushed in shot share, and found himself on the ice for two goals against. On the other hand, he played a beast of a third period and his end to end rush out of the blue created the go-ahead goal for the Avs. I’m not sure how to balance flashes of brilliance and game-changing plays with him getting crushed as badly as he did on shot metrics but this feels fair.

Erik Johnson (C+) –  I really don’t have a strong opinion about Johnson’s game either. I thought he was okay in some moments, bad in some, and really strong in others. The numbers are pretty even but he really wasn’t a good or bad net presence tonight.

Tyson Jost (A-) – I really liked what I saw from Jost tonight. Another goal obviously helps but he had five shots on goal and really drove play the right direction. Quietly, I liked his defense and thought he was one of Colorado’s most consistent forwards tonight.

Alexander Kerfoot (B) – He was all over the ice at times and he could’ve easily finished with multiple points had the Avs converted on some of the very good scoring chances created by Kerfoot and Co. It didn’t happen, though, so the grade can’t get too high. I’m not sure what he was doing defensively on Florida’s first goal but I imagine that’s something that gets talked about in tomorrow’s film session.

Gabriel Landeskog (C) – Another guy I’m just not sure how to feel about. I didn’t think his individual impact was very high in this game and the Avs spent most of his time on the ice chasing the play but he filled up the stat sheet and that’s usually tough to do if you’re really having a bad game. Two shots on goal, four hits, and three blocked shots is a stat-stuffing kind of night.

Nathan MacKinnon (B) – This might be the most complicated grade of all. He was spectacular during regulation, flying around and dominating most of the night. His drop pass to Calvert in the final minutes of regulation was the kind of creativity a guy like Calvert just isn’t prepared for and the pass itself was certainly imperfect. Knowing the result, it’s easy to say he should’ve shot it but had Calvert connected we would be talking about a highlight reel caliber goal. His defensive play in overtime stood out in a big way as he never picked up Ekblad and was purely puck-watching as Girard defended Hoffman as Hoffman found Ekblad for the game-winning goal. It was a pretty poor defensive effort from MacKinnon, who has started to give more of those as the season has gone on. Tough to settle up a guy who dominated stretches of this game but made a crucial mistake in overtime.

Patrik Nemeth (B+) – I thought Nemeth was super sneaky good in this one. He earned his assist with an aggressive play with the puck and he just seemed like a different guy out there. Maybe the stress of the deadline was wearing on him because he played with a certain freedom tonight that I don’t see from Nemeth very often. He was good defensively.

Mikko Rantanen (B+) – The numbers certainly look great for Rantanen and he buried a nice goal to give the Avalanche a 2-0 lead. I liked his game overall today. No nitpicking Rantanen on a day like this.

Carl Soderberg (C-) – He got beat up in shot share and missed a great chance to score what would have been the go-ahead goal in the third period when he had a breakaway stopped by Luongo and broke in alone in the final minutes but Luongo again turned him away. He was not quite the awesome level of Soderberg we’ve seen recently.

Semyon Varlamov (C) – It’s a harsh world we live as Varlamov was named the NHL’s First Star of the Week earlier today but played a very average game overall. The last two goals that got by him are really saves you’d like to see him come up with. He was merely okay tonight.

Nikita Zadorov (C+) – He dominated in the shot share and that’s the reason I’m putting this grade up as high as I am. One reason he dominated? He somehow finished with 10 shot attempts on his own, though only one actually made it on net. That’s still kind of nuts. I don’t really think he played that great of a game, though, as I saw some ghastly turnovers and poor decisions that created unnecessary problems for the Avs in their own zone. It was a sloppy game all around and I thought Zadorov’s game pretty well defined that. Some shiny numbers but the process was deeply flawed.