Avs Player Grades From Win In Florida

And: Some Florida memories

Brennan Asplen/Icon Sportswire

Lots of memories for me covering Avs hockey against the Florida Panthers, including the night they won their first Stanley Cup in 1996 and the night I was trapped inside a meth house in an Airbnb in 2019 or so and needed to tweet out a plea for help and actually got picked up by a fan (whose name I have disgracefully forgotten - if you’re reading, please email me!) and stayed the night at her and her husband’s house.

Avs beat Florida Panthers - whupped ‘em, in fact - Let’s get to some grades, and I’ll also post a few other Florida memories vis a vis Avalanche hockey after that.

Devon Toews (A+) - A huge night for No. 7. He was a plus-4 and had two assists in 21:30 of ice time. He has definitely started playing better after a mediocre start.

Cale Makar (A) - Two assists, a plus-3 for the player who I believe is your Hart Trophy winner to this point. He’s just so smooooooooooooooooth with the puck.

Valeri Nichushkin (A) - Choo Choo! (Sorry).

But seriously, a great night for Nuke, with a goal and two assists. Yeah, I know the goal was an empty-netter, but still, let’s face it: he makes the Colorado Avalanche hockey club a lot better when he’s in the lineup.

Kelly Parker (D) - A minus-2 in the game, in 11:58. He almost scored early, and that kind of bad-luck-trend continued the rest of the game.

Logan O’Connor (A) - He scored! LOC got his second goal of the season, and did more than that. He had Jolt-cola-sized energy throughout and had that kind of Buddy Hinton-style agitator demeanor to him.