Colorado Avalanche Player Grades, Game 1 WCF (+)

Then one day, he was shootin’ at some food, and up through the ground come a bubblin’ crude. Oil that is…

Jack Johnson: C – Lost Evander Kane for the Oilers’ first goal of the game and he couldn’t keep up with his speed. He had four hits and was a minus one. 

Bo Byram: B – Another consistent and solid game from the young defensemen. Over 20 minutes played and a couple of hits. 

Erik Johnson: B+ – He handled the puck extremely well in the offensive zone and jumped up in the play when he needed to. The defensive core as a group struggled tonight. 

Devon Toews: B – He went into the boards hard and looked injured for a minute. Didn’t slow him down as he had two assists and was a plus-two. It’s late-round playoff hockey, everyone has bumps and bruises at this point. There were a couple of careless clears again in the defensive zone toward the end. 

Cale Makar: A – Well everyone that was saying Makar needed to show up this series and boy did he. Beautiful goal top shelf on Mike Smith. It was the way he read the play and stole the puck that was just as impressive as the shot. Casual three-point night. Had a couple of defensive miscues, but hey.   

Andrew Cogliano: B+ – The part of his game that goes unnoticed is his ability to charge to the puck to gain control, cause an errant pass or simply force a turnover. He has confidence in his teammates on the back end to support if he misses. He also had the team’s all-important “taco” goal. 

Valeri Nichushkin: C+ – He found himself on the top line with MacKinnon and Landeskog. Surprisingly quiet night for him. He didn’t play badly, just never found himself on the score sheet. I’m sure we haven’t seen the end of the “offsides” call. 

Logan O’Connor: B – Similar to Koskinen, I also thought he was going to shoot the puck. Perfect pass to Cogliano who punched it in. The third and fourth lines were stellar tonight. 

Nathan MacKinnon: A –  Playoff MacKinnon. That’s it. That’s the grade. Kidding. He had a solid game with a pretty goal and other nice rushes.  

J.T. Compher: A+ – Depth scoring was going to be the difference-maker in the series and Compher is coming into the matchup with some momentum. Make that four goals in two games. 

Josh Manson : D – You could tell he was upset with the Oilers’ second goal of the game as he simply didn’t get a stick on Zach Hyman. His stick was almost smashed against the crossbar but he restrained. Rough game in general as he found himself out of position a lot and was a minus-four. 

Darren Helm: B –  Game 6 hero led the team with five hits and close to 12 minutes played. 

Artturi Lehkonen: C – He had an apple tonight and a little over 16 minutes played. He created a few chances and skated hard to the puck. But was a little too average it seemed.

Nazem Kadri: A – Going into the third period he led the team with eight shots on net, a goal, and 56% in the faceoff dot. Not bad..not bad at all. 

Gabe Landeskog: B- Redeemed himself with the empty net goal. It sealed the deal and the Avs closed the game out. It wasn’t pretty but not all games will be. 

Andre Burakovsky: B+ Third line looked good tonight. I really liked their passing and aggressiveness in the offensive zone. Both Newhook and Burakovsky had an assist on Compher’s goal. Blocked a nasty shot and was on the ice when the Oilers scored. 

Mikko Rantanen: B – HE FINALLY GOT ONE! 10 games in and he found the back of the net. He played hard and had a goal and assist. In the large scheme of things, hopefully this gets things going. 

Darcy Kuemper : NA –  Looked shaky in the first period and a half. He left the game about midway through the second with an upper-body injury. Report back for updates.

Pavel Francouz : B –18 saves on 21 shots. He made some big ones and he was left hanging on a few too. No official word on Kuemper. I’ll be curious how he does in future games when he is fully prepared and ready to go.