is his physicality has stepped up. that’s the only plus i’ve seen in the past few games. other than that though, defensive zone coverage and puck control, as stated many times, has been quite poor.

i say give him a night off, let him refocus, and just get him back to playing fundamentally solid defense. get that part of his game back, then insert him back on the powerplay if he’s playing better. he’s got too much skill to be in this rut forever, unless he’s developed fabian brunnstrom syndrome: macroscopic talent, microscopic confidence.

I was at the Detroit game Saturday and made an effort to focus on the play of Niskanen. And folks, it was ugly. He has no clue out there most of the time. He can’t get the puck out of the corners. He coughs up the puck in our zone way too often. And he provides little offensive support to boot. He needs to go back down to Austin and figure out how to play D.

I’m surprised that this blog has ignored the solid play that Fortunas showed Saturday. He was usually on short shifts, but when he was out there he made clean passes out of the zone, he back checked very well to disrupt a few of the Detroit rushes. And he stayed in good position. I like the kid. I hope he sticks around.

i think you have to either sit nisk or if you play him, keep him off the power play or just give him very small minutes,, so it would be better to sit him for a game or two and go with vishnevskiy and fortunas back there

doesn’t warrant that he stays up here. he didn’t make any mistakes, and played within his element. but this is the NHL, and how you play in situations outside your element and outside your comfort level define you. clearly, that’s the issue right now with niskanen.

the “kid” (he’s 26) did fine. and yes, played better than niskanen. but he is not nearly as talented as niskanen or vishnevskiy, nor will he ever be.

i feel the problem with niskanen can be solved this way: play him with robidas. robidas is a number one defensemen in this league whether we’re going to admit or not. but he is. his stats warrant so, and so does his work ethic. put niskanen with robidas, like when he was with zubov. do it for a few games so he can play and watch with our most complete defensemen. IF he still struggles, then i would seriously start to look elsewhere. but exhaust all options first. kid has too much talent.

and really, that’s what you want to get from the guy. and i don’t want to knock his game; he plays fundamentally sound defense, which is rare on this team. and i’ll be excited to see his play going forward. i think fistric has all of the same skills however, along with the physical presence he brings, and he’s even starting to move the puck nicely.

i’m just not ready to write niskanen off yet. he has the talent to be up here, he just needs to rid himself of the fabian brunnstrom flu. i think the perfect antidote for that is a ‘robidas vaccination’. it’s frustrating to watch someone digress as much as matt has, and i can’t imagine how frustrated he must feel. he’s a true competitor, and all of this has to be weighing heavily on his mind. i still think he can turn things around, and that he will. if he plays tonight, i think he turns out one of his better games of the year.

I say trade him already! I am tired of hearing about him. He is not at the level he should be….Later….Maybe trade him and brunn and see if we can get somebody…anybody…lol

Nisky went beast mode in 08. Sure he was with Zubov, but that season displayed how great he plays with confidence. Confidence has been Niskanen has been his achilles heel. Some time with Robidas couldn’t hurt. Niskanen’s will get out of this funk and begin to contribute as the potiental number one defenseman he is.