Avs player grades from dismal loss to Bruins

Please come to Boston

She said no

Jack Johnson: (D) – There will be a lot of similar grades here to come. JJ was like a lot of Avs in this one, where it seemed like there was ambien in his water bottle instead of powerade. Wasn’t moving his feet too swiftly in this one, had poor puck-possession numbers.

Erik Johnson: (C) – He actually wasn’t too bad out there. He was even through the first two periods and handled the puck pretty well. It wasn’t his fault, in other words.

Devon Toews (C) – He wasn’t his usual dynamic self. Seemed to be reactive and not proactive. It happens to the best of ’em.

Cale Makar (D+) – Turned the puck over a couple times in his own end, was playing behind the puck too much. Got a second-period assist

Valeri Nichushkin (D) – Pretty much invisible today. No jump to start the game. Again, he wasn’t alone in that regard.

Nicolas Aube-Kubel (F) – Two minor penalties in the game, no points or shots. Other than that…Jared Bednar ripped on him some after the game, saying it was “discipline” or lack thereof, on his part today.

Tyson Jost (D) – No impact at all out there. Just skated around for about 12 minutes or so.

Alex Newhook (F) – Truly, I didn’t notice him once today. The stat sheet reflects that. He also went 0-for-5 on faceoffs.

Logan O’Connor (D) – He tried to play with some sandpaper today, but Bruins didn’t seem to pay him much notice. In a bit of an offensive slump.

Nathan MacKinnon (B+) – Scored the Avs’ lone goal and had seven shots on net. Was best player on Avs today by a country mile.

J.T. Compher (C) – Nothing to speak of offensively, but I thought he played pretty well defensively at least, and he won 6-of-10 faceoffs.

Darren Helm (D) – A minus-2 showing today, didn’t possess the puck much.

Sam Girard (D) – Rough day for La Tornade, with a minus-2. Seemed to be a step behind the play all day, which is unusual for him.

Kurtis MacDermid (C) – Hey, he wasn’t great out there by any means, but Big Mac at least looked like he cared today. Had three hits.

Nazem Kadri (D) – His first bad game in a long time. Nothing on the score sheet and he lost nine of 15 faceoffs. He’s human.

Gabe Landeskog (C) – Just wasn’t very good today. Not like he dogged it out there at all, but it just wasn’t his day. Boston’s top line outplayed Colorado’s top line, for sure.

Andre Burakovsky (F) – A minus-2, looked sluggish, nothing offensively. Are the trade rumors bothering him? I don’t know, but his play has been off for a while now.

Mikko Rantanen (C-) – Got an assist on the MacKinnon goal. He wasn’t the problem today, but like we’ve said, it wasn’t his day either.

Darcy Kuemper (C+) – He kept the team in it after one period. Was playing a terrific game until that little two-goal flurry there after the Avs cut it to 2-1.