Avalanche player grades vs. Vegas: Small mistakes add up

Well, the No. 2 seed it is. The Avalanche overcame three separate one-goal deficits in a spirited effort but still lost to the now-top-seeded Vegas Golden Knights in overtime. It was a series of small mistakes and “mental errors” that did them in.

Here’s how I saw the game, with the report card:

FORWARDS

Pierre-Edouard Bellemare:

C+

He always seems to play well against his former team. Today, however, I didn’t see that same tenacity I usually do from Bellemare. I would rank him third among the forwards on that Avalanche fourth line, putting Matt Nieto and Matt Calvert a notch above him.

Andre Burakovsky:

C-

Oh how the mighty fall…

Burky spent his second straight game on the third line and I hardly noticed him throughout the game. He played a team-low 10:44 of ice time (down from 11:34 last game). He was easily pushed off the puck by Vegas defenders a majority of the time he had the puck on his stick, which wasn’t very often. He did make a nice play in the defensive zone when he broke his stick but still used his feet to kick a puck out of the zone. But that was literally his only highlight of the game.