Niskanen Takes on Best of the Best

When Capitals defenseman Matt Niskanen takes the ice each night, he knows he's going to be tasked with shutting down the best offensive players the opponent has to offer.
It's a challenging role, but one that Niskanen has wholeheartedly embraced in his four seasons with the Capitals.

Whether he's skating against Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews or Sidney Crosby, Niskanen enjoys finding ways to disrupt his opponent and constantly make them uncomfortable.
"I like the thinking part of the game," Niskanen said. "There's a ton of skilled players out there, and it's fun for me to try to read the plays they're trying to make, and break up the play and try to start our own break going the other way. I really enjoy that part of the game. It's challenging because you're facing guys who are way more talented than I am, so it's a good challenge and it's something I look forward to every night."

Over the course of the last few weeks, Niskanen has skated substantial minutes against some of the top forwards in the NHL. Against the Ottawa Senators on Nov. 22, he skated 9.1 minutes against Mark Stone and held a 60 percent shot attempts percentage (six shots for, four shots against). Niskanen also held Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov and Calgary Flames forward Johnny Gaudreau, two of the top scorers in the NHL, to even splits in shot attempts (11 for and 11 against vs. Kucherov, six for and six against vs. Gaudreau) when he skated against them for 11.8 minutes and nine minutes, respectively.
When Niskanen is tasked with shutting down the best offensive players in the game, he focuses on his fundamentals and leans on his 10 seasons of NHL experience to not allow his opponent to operate in the areas on the ice where they can be most effective.
"The basic stuff is to try not to have any big gaps so they don't feel like they have as much space as they want," Niskanen said. "The top players are dangerous with no space, but they'll smoke you if they have time and a lot of room. You have to try to confront them all over the ice and keep them out of the dangerous areas. Good players sometimes do nothing all game, and then they get one chance and they'll bury you."

During Niskanen's absence, when he missed 13 games with an upper-body injury, the Capitals relied heavily on fellow defenseman John Carlson to play more minutes. With Niskanen sidelined, Carlson's average ice time rose to 27:46 minutes per game and he averaged 1.66 points per 60 minutes of play. Now that Niskanen is fully healthy and playing top-four minutes, the Capitals boast two right-handed defensemen who complement one another well. In the 12 games since Niskanen returned from injury, Carlson is averaging 25:24 minutes per game, while his scoring is up to 1.77 points per game 60 minutes of play.
With Niskanen and Carlson available, both players alleviate pressure off of each other. Niskanen's defensive strength allows weight off Carlson's shoulders. And Carlson's threatening offensive skills allows Niskanen to fly under the radar more. That was no more apparent than when the team faced the New York Rangers on Dec. 8, with Niskanen scoring the game-winning goal, his first goal of the season after jumping deep into the offensive zone. Both players are strong enough on both ends of the ice to be entrusted.

Although the Capitals missed Niskanen's production on the blue line while he recovered from an upper-body injury, the time off allowed the Virginia, Minn. native to work on his conditioning. Each morning before the rest of the team practiced, Niskanen could be found on the ice doing timed sprints as part of "Camp Nemo", which is the nickname the players have for strength and conditioning coach Mark Nemish's grueling drills for injured players.
"When you're not out there it's not good for your timing and it's not good for your hands and your feel for the game," Niskanen said. "But it does give your body a chance to heal up. Thankfully for me it was just an upper-body injury, so I was able to keep my conditioning up and even improve it in some respects. It's all about finding a balance and nobody wants to be out, but you try to take the positives from that and work on some things."

Now that Niskanen is firmly back in the fold and his workload has ramped back up to top-four minutes, the Capitals are in position to make things tougher on opposing offenses.