Avs-Sens player grades: Avs roll over

Player grades for Colorado’s loss to the Ottawa Senators.

Sven Andrighetto (C+) – I always wonder how a team decides on their designated penalty guy. You know, the guy who sits in the box when they get called for a bench infraction or the goalie takes a penalty? How did Andrighetto become that guy? Is it because he’s fast and they would never use him on the PK so just in case there’s a break opportunity it’s a speedy guy with some offensive ability? Could it really be that simple?

Mark Barberio (C-) – I don’t think he’s played very well in any of his games this year. I’m not sure what’s going on with him but even the positives we’ve seen in previous years aren’t showing up the same way. He wasn’t nearly as bad tonight as he was in Toronto but what kind of benchmark is that?

Tyson Barrie (F) – This is one of those nights where the roller coaster of Barrie’s game was at its lowest. He was bad defensively and he couldn’t stop giving pucks away on offense. When he’s playing this poorly, rarely do the Avs find any success. The shot metrics are very much in Barrie’s favor but watching him make mistake after mistake was just too much.

Matt Calvert (D) – This line was a disaster when the game was still in question. Calvert had an absurd disallowed goal but that was about the only notable contribution on the night.

Ian Cole (C-) – Blown coverages on the back of poor communication have become all too common with Cole in the last handful of games, an oddity given how talkative he is on the ice, but another weak game from Cole here.

J.T. Compher (C) – I really didn’t notice Compher much at all in this game. I still don’t think he’s a second-line caliber player and relying on him for scoring isn’t going very well.

Sheldon Dries (C+) – He hit the post in the first and just about scored. That would’ve been a nice change for a fourth line that hasn’t produced anything positive in weeks.

Samuel Girard (D) – When Colorado’s top pairing plays poorly, they pretty much always lose. Girard was a total non-factor tonight.

Erik Johnson (D) – After a handful of games where he looked like the good version of EJ we’ve come to expect over the years, Johnson regressed back to the player we’ve seen too frequently this season. He has to be an impact player for the Avalanche to be successful.

Tyson Jost (C) – He played, they tell me. But really, I didn’t notice anything good or bad from Jost tonight. He was Just A Guy.

Alexander Kerfoot (C-) –Putting Kerfoot with Nieto and Calvert is a surefire way to get nothing from Kerfoot. The coaching staff needs a better idea than this.

Gabriel Landeskog (D) – Did nothing offensively and totally lost track of Matt Duchene on the fourth goal against. For a team that has consistently found ways to climb out of holes, that goal served to pretty much wrap this one up and was an uncharacteristically apathetic display from Landeskog.

Nathan MacKinnon (C-) – A nice pass so he can register a point but he didn’t come close to playing well. MacKinnon had a fantastic shot for Colorado’s second goal. More of that would have been cool.

Matt Nieto (D+) – A little finish would go a long way because Nieto finds himself in some prime scoring areas all too often.

Mikko Rantanen (C-) – Garbage time points are just that.

Carl Soderberg (C+) – He was the only forward through two periods that seemed engaged at all. He fell off a bit in the third but after all the hard carrying he’s done this week, can you blame him for wearing down?

Semyon Varlamov (D) – I don’t really know how to feel about Varly’s game. I didn’t think he was particularly bad tonight but another four goals got by him for some reason or another. Simply put, that just isn’t good enough. He has to be better than he was tonight. The way he played the first goal baffles me and then the fourth goal he just looked slow and unathletic, two things I’ve basically never said about Varly in his entire career. He just doesn’t look like the same kind of explosive athlete he used to be and the effect it’s having on his game is significant.

Colin Wilson (C) – Another guy that I simply didn’t notice. He was out there but I didn’t really see anything much from him.

Nikita Zadorov (C+) – That goal was an absolute laser. We always say this but if he could find that touch consistently, his game would get to a totally different level.