Pittsburgh Penguins: Chill Out, Paul Martin
Former Pittsburgh Penguin Paul Martin says that it’s very doable for the Pens to squander a 3-1 series lead, and it could easily happen again this year. But he doesn’t know this team.
Paul Martin left the Pittsburgh Penguins for the San Jose Sharks early in free agency last year. Very few people expected that he would be squaring off against his former team in the Stanley Cup Final just the next season. Unlikely as it was back then, that’s exactly the situation we’ve got here.
Martin was never going to stay in Pittsburgh, and he had known it for a long time leading up to the end of the season. I mean, realistically, we all knew it. He was getting up there in years and wasn’t really working with the kind of game the Penguins wanted to play. Of course, that pesky salary cap was a factor too.
I’ll be honest, I really liked Martin on the Penguins. Up until this point, I didn’t care enough about the Sharks to dislike them or root against them. But now, they’re kind of on my last nerve. Including Martin.
Of course, every team and every player give soundbites that are intended to show their confidence and tear down the other team a bit. But for some reason, it stings a little more when it’s coming from a guy who wore the black and gold for so long.
Following game five, Martin told the media, “We played them pretty well at SAP. I’ve been over there when they’ve lost 3-1 leads and lost series.” And that’s true. He’s sure done his time on the wrong side of things. He was there in 2011 when the Tampa Bay Lightning came back and in 2014 when the New York Rangers did the same.
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Sure, it’s still possible that that could happen again this year. But those Penguin teams that Martin was referring to are long gone. He doesn’t know this group, doesn’t know how resilient and powerful they can be. And this is the Stanley Cup Final, after all. It’s the Penguins’ Cup to lose.
But the Sharks know that. Martin knows that. San Jose has nothing to lose when their backs are up against the wall. That’s when they, and really any team, are most dangerous.
The thing is, I can’t fault Martin too much for making those comments. He knows what it feels like, and he’s in the unique position that he’s had success with both of these teams. I do think it’s a bit of a stretch to compare this team to either of those, though.
We all can agree that this Penguins team is the best one we’ve had since the 2009 Cup win. Its coach is probably even better this time around, and the lineup is proportioned a little differently now. But this is not the team that Paul Martin played on, and for good reason.
I truly don’t think the Penguins could be in the position they are now if he had stuck around. Even if everything else stayed the same, with all the trades and call-ups and line rotations, we wouldn’t be here. He’s been good in San Jose, working with Brent Burns on the top defensive pair, but their defense is weak as a whole.
Ours used to be. Not so much anymore.
All of our defensemen now are mobile, and good with the puck. We don’t really have a stay-at-home guy who’s a looming but lumbering back-end presence, and that’s probably for the better. The d-corps has definitely improved since Martin’s departure.
Next: Penguins Lose Game Five; Can't Clinch Cup Yet
The Sharks are not playing bad by any stretch of the imagination. Neither are the Penguins. The big difference in this series has been the goalies. Martin Jones has been unreal for the Sharks, while Matt Murray has been… okay-ish. As long as Murray can keep it together in game six, we’ll lift the Cup.
If not, you’ll be able to find me packing away my Paul Martin Pittsburgh shirsey and eating my words.