Philadelphia Flyers: Matt Niskanen’s struggles clear during playoffs

Matt Niskanen has not been playing like the top Flyers defenseman that he was during the regular season.

While most of the Flyers top players have been struggling during the postseason, it is the play of Matt Niskanen that has been among the most concerning. He was one of the team’s best defensemen during the regular season. Put on the top pairing with Ivan Provorov, the two were among the league’s best duos.

But something changed when the regular season turned into the playoffs. His struggles have been evident from the start. He has looked a step too slow on more than one occasion. He hasn’t been able to clear the crease and he has gotten beat in numerous board battles.

And unfortunately for the Flyers, a lot of those moments have ended up in the back of their net. Some of those in this current series against the Islanders. In Game Three, Niskanen was unable to fend off Derick Brassard behind the net. It ended with Leo Komarov scoring with just five seconds remaining in the second period.

In the same game, Niskanen was not able to clear Anders Lee from in front of the net. That allowed him to help deflect a puck into the net to increase the Islanders’ lead. And looking at Sunday night’s game, Niskanen was caught flat-footed up in the play that led to a 2-on-1 the other way. It wasn’t the first time in that game either.

There are plenty of other moments we can look at where Niskanen hasn’t been able to get it done. And as a top defenseman on this team, that has been unacceptable, to say the least. He has not looked anywhere close to what we’ve seen from him before. He has uncharacteristically been on the negative end when it comes to chances against.

Sometimes the advanced stats can fool us, evident by Niskanen consistently being over 50% in the chances category in the second round. He has averaged around a 56.33 CF % during the series against the Islanders. His best even came during the Game Four loss.

He touched the halfway mark just once during the first round. And it was barely there as he finished at exactly 50% in Game Four. He followed that up with a playoff-worst 30.43 CF% in his last game of the first round.

Through 12 games, Niskanen has a 46.61 CF%. That is actually fourth on the team, second among regular defensemen, though. Both Robert Hagg and Shayne Gostisbehere have a worse percentage, but they have traded spots in the lineup during the postseason. Niskanen’s partner in Provorov is the other regular to have a worse percentage. It makes sense as those two are paired together.

So you could say both are having bad postseasons. But Provorov has been able to chip in offensively on more than one occasion. And while his numbers don’t look sharp, his mistakes haven’t been nearly as frequent as Niskanen’s. It’s becoming more and more of a problem as the Flyers are on the brink of elimination.

They are going to need players like Niskanen to step up and lead if they don’t want to get sent home. Winning three in a row against this Islanders team will no doubt be a tough task. It is going to take more than just Niskanen stepping up. But his presence could be just as vital.

It would be tough to see Alain Vigneault actually thinking about splitting up his top pairing. But all choices have to be on the table right now. His second pairing has gotten slightly exposed during this series as well. It may be time to split those two pairings up.

The Flyers need to find a spark and fast before they are sent packing by the Islanders. They need to see a lot more from Niskanen as well.