Don’t be surprised by Porter Martone’s spectacular start. The Flyers knew what they had all along.
Martone is just 19, but this isn’t some out-of-nowhere miracle. This is the equivalent of the Flyers’ acquiring a high-scoring forward in a late-season trade and having him fit in seamlessly.
PITTSBURGH — Back home in Peterborough, Ontario, Porter Martone spends days every summer and hours every day in his family’s yard, shooting pucks at a net that has a homemade goalie set in front of it. The goalie is actually a chair with a wooden plank, a goaltender’s mitt, and a goaltender’s blocker pad affixed to it, and Martone sets a smooth pad on the grass so he can fire away at the net’s upper and lower corners, testing himself against the Frankenstein’s monster that he himself created.
“Still do it to this day when I go back there,” he said Sunday, after the Flyers had practiced at PPG Paints Arena. “It’s had to be reconstructed over the years. It’s something I love to do.”
What was it that Branch Rickey is supposed to have said — that luck is the residue of design? Well, skill can be, too, and Martone’s winning goal in the Flyers’ 3-2 Game 1 victory over the Penguins, that right-circle wrist shot that he roofed with less than three minutes to go, was a perfect manifestation of the ability and diligence that he possesses — and that made the Flyers so comfortable with trusting him in the teeth of a playoff push.
Ten games with the Flyers now, and Martone has five goals and 11 points. He has won a big game for them against the Boston Bruins with an overtime goal and now a postseason game with a late-third period goal. He has done more than anyone, even the Flyers, had the right to expect out of a 19-year-old who hadn’t played a minute of pro hockey before he joined the team three weeks ago.
Understand something, though: While the Flyers are thrilled with Martone’s play and production so far, with the way he has seemed a star from the instant he stepped on the ice for them, they aren’t completely shocked. They had an inkling back in August and September, before training camp began, of what they had in him. Team president Keith Jones, general manager Danny Brière, and their staff had watched Martone hold his own with Team Canada at last year’s World Championships, with Sidney Crosby and Travis Konecny and Travis Sanheim and Tyson Foerster.
“That was, really, the No. 1 reason we knew he was really close to playing in the NHL,” Jones said. “We expected him to contribute right away.”
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Right away turned out to be late March, once Martone’s lone season at Michigan State ended with the Spartans’ loss to Wisconsin in the NCAA regional finals. But right away could have been the first game of the Flyers’ regular season, had they dared to be careless, had they brought Martone to training camp instead of consenting to have him play in college.
Martone had a multitude of options once the Flyers drafted him sixth overall last year. He could have stayed in the Canadian Hockey League or, thanks to a recent CHL rule, he could transfer to a college program. Jumping to Michigan State was his preference, so much so that he insisted Sunday that the name, image, and likeness money that the Spartans offered and gave him had no bearing on his decision.
“I wasn’t really looking into that too much,” he said. “I was there for the hockey. It was going to make me the best hockey player five to 10 years down the road. It was the culture they have there. I was going there to try to win a championship and fit into a team. Their whole staff, that’s a culture where I really believe that.”
The catch was that, if Martone entered college, NCAA regulations would prohibit him from taking part in any NHL training camp. Internally, the Flyers were happy to have that decision taken out of their hands, because they feared — if that’s the right word — that if Martone came to camp, they’d have no choice but to keep him on the roster.
“He could have made the team at the start of the year,” Jones said, “and it wouldn’t have been the best thing for his development, but he was good enough to play then. We did not put any time or pressure on him to make his decision. But we felt like it would be very hard to let him go home [from training camp] because we expected him to be a very good player.”
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Given that context, no one should look at Martone’s insertion into the lineup and his spectacular start as happy accidents for the Flyers. This isn’t some out-of-nowhere miracle. This is the equivalent of the Flyers’ acquiring a high-scoring forward in a late-season trade and having him fit in seamlessly. Perhaps the only decision-maker who was surprised at all was Rick Tocchet. Because he was immersed in coaching the players he already had, it wasn’t until the season’s final month Tocchet finally started watching the video clips and reading the reports on Martone that Jones had been sending him for weeks.
“That’s when I started paying attention to him,” Tocchet said, “and I figured that if he was going to come up, let’s get him into a top-six role right away and see how he does.”
The results have spoken for themselves. From shooting those pucks on his parents’ front lawn to silencing a rabid Pittsburgh crowd with a single wicked shot in Game 1, Porter Martone sure plays and acts and carries himself as if he were always supposed to be here. Turns out he was right on time.
Flyers lead series 1-0
Game 1: Flyers 3, Penguins 2 | Sielski: Kids stand tall
Game 2: Flyers at Penguins, 7 p.m. Monday, NBCSP/ESPN
Game 3: Penguins at Flyers, 7 p.m. Wednesday, NBCSP/TNT/truTV/HBO MAX
Game 4: Penguins at Flyers, 8 p.m. April 25, NBCSP/TBS/truTV/HBO MAX
*Game 5: Flyers at Penguins, April 27 (Time TBD)
*Game 6: Penguins at Flyers, April 29 (Time TBD)
*Game 7: Flyers at Penguins, May 2 (Time TBD)
*if necessary
