Avalanche Player Grades in win over Sharks

Haven’t done player grades in a while, so let’s get some going:

Gabe Landeskog (C) – Didn’t notice him a lot tonight. No shots on net, minus-1 in the first 50 minutes of the contest. Played some center toward the end of the game, took a shot off the body from Sam Girard on Avs’ fifth goal. Seemed OK.

J.T. Compher (Inc) – Hurt in the first period (upper body). Didn’t return.

Jared Bednar with a bit of worry in his voice about Compher. "Could be two days, or much longer" – said he "pulled something"

— Adrian Dater (@adater) November 14, 2021

Mikko Rantanen (C+) – A bit like Landeskog, kind of quiet. Not a bad game, but not much in the way of tangible offensive numerology.

Valeri Nichushkin (B+) – Strong defensive game and chipped in with an assist. Avs have been better since he returned from injury.

Nazem Kadri (A) – A goal and assist, good in the faceoff dot. Exactly what you want in a second-line center. He’s got a six-game point streak.

Andre Burakovsky (A-) – Scored another goal, seems like he’s getting his game together again. Never going to be confused with Frank J. Selke, but as long as he’s scoring goals, that’s fine.

Logan O’Connor (A) – Another strong game for the former DU kid. His short-handed goal pretty much salted the game away in the second period.

Darren Helm (A) – Strong defensively, had an assist, pretty good PK work. After a slow start, he’s been better.

Tyson Jost (D) – Barely noticeable tonight offensively. Has two points in 12 games. Tough to rip on a guy in a 6-2 win, but he also was one of few Avs with a negative Corsi tonight.

Alex Newhook (B) – Scored a goal and had four shots on net. Lost 6-of-9 faceoffs and had negative Corsi as well. But you can see he’s more confident after his stint in the minors.

Jayson Megna (B+) – Had an assist and won 5-of-8 faceoffs. That works as a fourth-line centerman.

Kiefer Sherwood (B-) – Not much in the way of statistics, but he did a serviceable job in a depth role.

Jack Johnson (A-) – I liked JJ’s game. 15-9 Corsi for-against, an assist, a couple of blocked shots and a partridge in a pear tree.

Erik Johnson (A) – Excellent game for EJ. An assist, plus-2, four shots, three blocks. And a…

Cale Makar (B-) – Kind of a quiet night for all-hail-Cale. Played 21 minutes, but nothing on the score sheet and didn’t really have the puck a lot. Some of that had to do with the Avs having a big lead, though, and sitting back more.

Devon Toews (A) – Scored a goal and was sound defensively, as he almost always is. Just a tremendous player.

Ryan Murray (B+) – Nice, solid veteran showing from Murray tonight, in place of the injured Bo Byram. Was a plus-2.

Sam Girard (A+) – One goal and three assists for G, including a sweet sauce dish to Newhook for his goal. After a slow start, he’s been much better.

Darcy Kuemper (B+) – I thought Kemps was solid. His game, too, is coming on. His saves percentage is up to .914 now.