Avs-Predators player grades: Goaltending betrays Avs again

Player grades for Colorado’s loss to the Nashville Predators.

Sven Andrighetto (C+) – His line was really good so I’m giving him a little bump because it wasn’t like they succeeded without Andrighetto contributing. It’s just what Sven was doing was pretty limited overall. He came real close to one goal but missed the net.

Mark Barberio (F) – I’m just not sure where the Barberio of last season disappeared to. He went from being a totally capable depth defenseman who could rotate in and not bury you to a player this year that has been nothing short of atrocious. His defense on the third Nashville goal was the stuff of lengthy benchings.

Tyson Barrie (D) – The Preds feasted on the Avs with Barrie on the ice today. The utter lack of creativity and effectiveness of the top PP unit is both confusing and an indictment of a unit that increasingly looks broken.

Gabriel Bourque (C) – Of all of Colorado’s problems today, this guy wasn’t one of them. I can’t remember anything particularly positive but he wasn’t some overly detrimental trainwreck.

Matt Calvert (B) – He played hard, he played effectively, he could have easily had points. What more can you ask for from Matt Calvert?

Ian Cole (B+) – He’s nowhere near as fast as Viktor Arvidsson and had Varly not played that wraparound goal as poorly as he did I’d be talking about a very good overall performance from Cole instead. I thought he was great today.

J.T. Compher (C) – This like took a big step back today. It wasn’t particularly problematic or anything. It just wasn’t as good. Compher also took a penalty, which is playing with fire with this Avs PK.

Sheldon Dries (C) – He was involved in some post-whistle stuff early on. I don’t remember anything he actually did during the play. For fourth line players, that’s almost always a good thing. I’ll admit a soft spot for Dries.

Samuel Girard (B+) – Great to see him record a point at even strength. He was really dangerous today. More of that and we’ll start to see the player we all believe he can be.

Alexander Kerfoot (A) – His line was great, his goal was great. He played a damn fine game.

Gabriel Landeskog (C) – A perfectly average performance from the top line today. Just three whoa dudes having blah days.

Nathan MacKinnon (C) –  His best scoring chance was a lightning backhand opportunity that Pekka Rinne just barely knicked and sent high above the net. Close call there but that was really it for him today.

Patrik Nemeth (C) – Nemeth was perfectly ordinary and average. I would take this kind of game from Nemeth 100 percent of the time.

Matt Nieto (C) – He didn’t really play a ton in this one. He was given a penalty shot on a play that wasn’t a penalty but couldn’t cash in. This is entirely off the top of my head, but I believe Nieto now leads the Avalanche in penalty shot attempts since he arrived a few years ago. If that’s actually true, that’s really weird and sort of fun?

Mikko Rantanen (C) – He got hooked like you wouldn’t believe and still couldn’t draw a call. You’d think a big forward who takes the crazy abuse he does would draw more calls in general but it’s clear this is the NHL and referees have almost no idea what they’re doing anymore. Rantanen did have one outstanding move but got stopped by Rinne. Story of the day.

Carl Soderberg (C) – Like with Compher, just less of an overall impact on this one than we’ve seen from them in the last week. They didn’t play poorly, just didn’t really have it going today.

Semyon Varlamov (F) – The third goal was not on him at all as the defense in front of him completely hung him out to dry. But those first two goals against? What in the world? When did Varly become the only guy in the NHL who can’t stop basic wraparounds?

Colin Wilson (C-) – He should’ve had two goals on the same shift in the third period. He missed one and whiffed the second attempt. That’s not nearly good enough.

Nikita Zadorov (D) – He was probably lucky he wasn’t called for interference when he lowered the boom on Sissons in the first period (Sissons hadn’t touched the puck yet). His unbelievably terrible pass up the middle from his own zone turned into the first goal of the game and while you can blame Varlamov for the weak goal against, that play never happens if Zadorov makes almost any other decision with the puck.