Weekly Grades: Let Us Go Home Edition!
Photo by Randy Litzinger/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The Avs went 1-2-0 this week - but were they any good? We’re back with the Colorado Avalanche weekly report card! This week Colorado finished out its road trip by getting shutout by Sergei Bobrovsky then winning and losing a pair of 6-3 games to a bad team and a good team. But were they any good?
THE GAMES
Saturday @ Florida: 4-0 LTuesday @ Washington: 6-3 WThursday @ Tampa Bay: 6-3 L
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Artturi Lehkonen: Playing on a line with Ross Colton and Miles Wood in Logan O’Connor’s absence, Lehky powered the Avs to the win in Washington with two goals and two assists. This was pure beauty:
+ = (Rantanen, Lehkonen) @Avalanche pic.twitter.com/VGnnKzSefK— NHL Suomi (@NHL_fi) February 14, 2024
Unreal vision. Lehkonen also was one of the few bright spots in the Tampa game, driving play with Colton and Wood as the Avs's only line with decent metrics and salvaging a struggling powerplay with this tip:
Artturi Lehkonen iskee jälleen! Arsi nappasi tämän lisäksi yhden syöttöpisteen. pic.twitter.com/1v6vgzwGjH— NHL Suomi (@NHL_fi) February 16, 2024
His six points in these two games are undercut a bit by rough underlying statistics in the Florida game, but still enough for an A-
STAR WATCH
Nathan MacKinnon: 4 Assists
Obviously, we’ve come to expect more from NatHart HartKinnon than what he’s shown on this road trip, and it doesn’t bode well for his MVP chances to get outscored by Nikita Kucherov head-to-head, but MacKinnon got beat up this week and still managed to drive play and set up his teammates.
Nathan MacKinnon took a puck to the face and was bleeding all over the ice... He's already back in the game. He missed all of 6 minutes of game action before returning.Hockey players: built different pic.twitter.com/kwW6qXyWqH— Romi Bean (@Romi_Bean) February 16, 2024
Of course, that puck to the face and the ice to the chin that ended his night early against Washington came after the dud in Florida, and he hasn’t scored a goal in a while. Not good enough.
Grade: C+
Mikko Rantanen: 1 Goal, 2 Assists
His goal was all Lehkonen, though the finish was nice. I don’t recall the assists or much else of what he did out there – I don’t think Mikko has stood out in a game yet in 2024.
Grade: D
MINDING THE NET
Justus Annunen:
He was actually good in Tampa, stopping a ton of odd-man rushes and scoring chances - the Avs in front of him just gave up so many that he still ended up letting in four goals before the two empty netters. You can see his youth on this play, though:
️@DaveMishkin “SCOREEE IT WENT IN OFF BRAYDEN POINT!”1st period: @TBLightning 1 Avalanche 1! Kucherov and Hedman assist. #COLvsTBL : https://t.co/BVfdPZ2Udz : @1025TheBone pic.twitter.com/IXH534EdHC— Lightning Audio Network (@BoltsRadio) February 16, 2024
Does a more veteran goalie act decisively and pounce on that puck? It’s definitely possible, though I don’t think this is really Annunen’s fault. It’s a fluke bounce gone wrong, but he did have a chance to play it differently. On the other goals against goalie play was not the problem. A-
Alexandar Georgiev:
Four goals against yet again in Florida, but did enough to keep the lead in Washington. Amazing how not giving up four goals leads to wins, isn’t it? B
ROLE PLAYER HONOR ROLL
Ross Colton: The Florida game was bad for everyone but Colton and Drouin – they both had very good underlying stats and just couldn’t finish. Colton finished one and added an assist in Washington, then another assist in Tampa.
A tribute for Ross Colton. This goal in the Stanley Cup Final will go down as A MOMENT. #GoBolts pic.twitter.com/Cb6eN3dX21— Diandra Loux (@Diandra_loux) February 16, 2024
Cool to see him honored for Tampa’s cup win. Can’t wait til he gets his next one. A-
DUNCE CAP IN MY DOGHOUSE DUNGEON
Cale Makar: 0
No points, bad defense, powerplay struggles, and his underlying statistics only looked decent against Washington – he got caved in Florida, and Tampa outscored the Avs 3-0 with Cale on the ice.
Grade: D-
THE REST
Bowen Byram: He got aggressive offensively and got rewarded with two assists in Washington and two goals in Tampa! But was not strong in the defensive zone all week. C+
Andrew Cogliano: Picked up an assist in Washington. Otherwise fine. B-
Jonathan Drouin: Was the brightest of few bright spots against the Panthers, but didn’t do much in Washington or Tampa. B
Sam Girard: Coming off an excellent week, Girard led the defense in the underlying metrics I looked at all week. He just wasn’t able to translate that strong play to points. B+
Ryan Johansen: Had an assist in Washington. D
Jack Johnson: Got less ice time in each game, ending with just 11 minutes in Tampa. His lineup spot is not safe. C-
Joel Kiviranta: He’s clearly not capable of consistent offense at the NHL level, but did make a few strong defensive plays. C-
Kurtis MacDermid: I’ll give him credit for the screen on this goal in Washington!
Devon Toews sizzles one home through traffic to quickly double Colorado's lead to 2!#GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/dkN82ouKiZ— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) February 14, 2024
And he drew a penalty in Tampa. A rare good week on the ice for Dermy. B
Josh Manson: Was somewhat all over the place against Washington, perhaps taking the peddle off the metal against a lesser opponent. Still paired with Girard for the best underlying stats on D all week. B+
Logan O’Connor: Picked up an injury in Florida. Sorely missed the rest of the week C+
Fredrik Olofsson: Got a chance to show he could play third-line minutes and didn’t seize it. D
Zach Parise: Hit a crossbar against Tampa, but clearly needs a stronger center to be effective – his underlyings cratered after a strong first week. C
Devon Toews: Was fine in Florida, quite good in Washington, then awful awful in Tampa. Toews has had off games before but almost never loses the High Danger Chance battle – Tampa preyed on him though and won it 6-2. D+
Miles Wood: Goal and an assist in Washington, and decent metrics all week B+
TEAM GRADE FOR THE WEEK
This was better than last despite a shutout loss and a third-period collapse in Tampa. That’s mostly reflective of how bad last week was, as this was certainly not good. Even the Washington win had large stretches of horrendous play. The game possession chart shows the Avs didn’t deserve to be in the game after the first period, dominated the second, and did just enough to get empty netters to seal the deal in the third.
That’s the anatomy of a good win, but it’s still concerning that the first period was so weak. I drilled into the powerplay last week so I won’t get into too much detail here, but it was not much better other than Artturi Lehkonen’s netfront magic. And hey, sometimes that’s all it takes – the powerplay at its hottest this year had Val in front wreaking havoc. If Lehky can take that job and run with it, the PP should put up points again.
Overall these continued road woes are not encouraging. Let us go home already! D+...
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