Niskanen’s last playoffs weren’t his best, but the Flyers defenseman gave everything he had.
By the time the Flyers regular season was cancelled by COVID, I had come around to Matt Niskanen. He was not the player he was five years ago, but did everything in his power to allow Ivan Provorov to elevate his game. Unfortunately the playoffs was a different story. By Game 4 of the Canadiens’ series, Radko Gudas was looking a lot better.
From the time that the Flyers started the playoffs, Niskanen looked out of sorts. Not unlike early in the season he seemed a step or two slow. But unlike the regular season Niskanen never got that step back. It could have been that he just did not get into the shape he wanted. It could be rust from the layoff, or it could have been that pieces of him started to seize up after over 900 NHL games.
Mentally, Niskanen did not look at his sharpest either. There were many uncharacteristic turnovers and unforced errors when he had the puck. While the chances resulting directly from his play were bad, there was a bigger effect. It seemed Niskanen’s play had an unnerving effect on Provorov. Provorov seemed more reserved and less aggressive in the face of Niskanen’s unsteady play.
Niskanen played 15 of the teams 16 playoff games, missing one game for a suspension earned from a hit on the Canadiens Brendan Gallagher. He had a +1 even strength goal differential and a corsi percentage of 45.90 percent, outpacing only Robert Hagg. The numbers are not devastating, in fact they are quite respectable as nearly the entire team suffered from a corsi deficit. But with obvious misplays and mistakes, it does open the question of how much better the numbers could have been.
Niskanen was a fixture on the penalty kill, playing more minutes short handed than everyone not named Ivan Provorov. Niskanen allowed six goals on the kill which was a reasonable amount for 44 minutes of shorthanded time on ice. This is in light of how much he struggled all round early in the playoffs.
Niskanen also garnered the second most powerplay minutes amongst the Flyers defense with 31 minutes time on ice mostly with the second unit. Niskanen did not garner a single point and struggled like most of the team with the man advantage. Like every player that played significant minutes Niskanen should shoulder some of the blame, but his numbers were likely more the effect than the cause of a weak powerplay. I don’t think anyone was counting him to be the spark on the powerplay.
Niskanen played poorly in the playoffs, especially early on. Through the first half of the Montreal series he may have scored an F. His play improved dramatically after mangling the face of Brendan Gallagher, though still not to his peak of the past season.
Though his early play was bad, and cost the Flyers some goals and some games, the team was able to overcome and move on to the next round. While playing the Islanders, Niskanen was still not great, but was not a drive force in the Flyers’ defeat to the Islanders as compared to Phil Myers. Niskanen was basically break even against the Islanders, not tipping the scale immensely in either direction.
This was Matt Niskanen’s last playoff, and I wonder if he knew that then. Could that have weighed on him? Could that rough start been the catalyst for stepping down? In either case, Niskanen was probably hoping to help the team a bit more in his swan song but understood the reality that he gave all he could and it was not enough for him to want to keep playing. Happy trails Matt, and thank you.