Avs Grades in OT Win Over the Oilers; Winnin’ with MacKinnon

Cause I’m on top of the world 

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Jack Johnson: B – He was a minus two tonight but besides a couple of costly mistakes, the defense really shut down McDavid and Draisaitl. He finished with two hits, two shots and two blocked shots.

Erik Johnson: B – This was a low-shooting affair for both teams. The Oilers had 25 shots and Johnson played well defensively on his 34th birthday.

Devon Toews: B+ – No points tonight but he was involved in other ways. He had five shots, three hits and 27 minutes played.

Cale Makar: A+ –Well…there’s a first for everything. Tonight we saw Makar get an “embellishment” call.  71 points on the season now. He does a great job of controlling the point on the first power play unit. 

Val Nichushkin: A – This line came out flying in the first shift of the game. Loved the energy from them and they were rewarded with the first goal of the game. He now has five points in his last three games. 

Nicolas Aube-Kubel: C – Six minutes tonight and a minus one. Not much more. Probably will be on bench a lot more soon, with Lehkonen and Cogliano on the way.

Alex Newhook: B- – He had a beautiful opportunity in the third on a feed from Sturm but missed the net. This line was quiet on the score sheet, but I thought they played pretty well otherwise. 

Logan O’Connor: C+ – He just works hard. Every. Night. He’s still in a scoring funk but he was able to draw a penalty that the team capitalized on. 

Ryan Murray: NA – He left in the first period with an upper-body injury and did not return. I would anticipate a call-up from the Eagles, as Sam Girard and Bo Byram remain out. Jacob MacDonald might have earned that call-up, but he was injured the other night and the other guy who probably would have gotten called up, Justin Barron, was traded today.

Nathan MacKinnon: A+ – He was seeing the ice really well tonight and looked good on the power play. 10 shot attempts including the overtime winner. He’s going to score on a look like that 9/10 times. 

J.T. Compher: C – He had three shot attempts but none made it to the net. His silver medalist sister, Jesse, was in town to catch the game!

Josh Manson: D – A little too physical tonight? This wasn’t his best game as an Av as he coughed the puck up in his own zone and took a costly penalty. Rough game.

Darren Helm: C- – Six minutes played and one shot on net. It’ll be interesting to see what the bottom six looks like with the recent additions. 

Kurtis MacDermid: C – He had a few big hits that got the crowd excited and into it the game. He had seven hits in 7 minutes. 

Nico Sturm: B- – He played a little over 2 minutes on the penalty kill tonight and he was really grinding against the boards. He was also 7-for-9 on faceoffs tonight. 

Nazem Kadri: B – He seems to have taken Landeskogs role of sitting in front of the net. He’s a big, physical guy, that the opposing team isn’t going to move easily. 

Andre Burakovsky: C – Not a huge deal but I noticed he doesn’t enter the zone as clean as others. There seems to be some hesitation when he gets to the blue line which leads to a bad pass or the opposing team getting control.

Mikko Rantanen: A+ – Not that every goal isn’t important but both goals being power-play goals, is just what the doctor ordered. 

Darcy Kuemper: A – He was left out to dry on the two goals and never really had a chance. I thought his post-to-post movement was on point and he again made the saves the team needed him