LAS VEGAS — With echoes of Gord Downie and the Tragically Hip. . .
The last playoff goal he ever scored in Los Angeles won the Kings the Cup. They haven’t won another. But Alec Martinez might.
We know, the metre is all wrong.
But at least Martinez’s story is a happier one than Downie’s tribute song “Fifty Mission Cap” about the disappearance and death of Bill Barilko after his final goal won the Toronto Maple Leafs the Stanley Cup in 1951.
What makes Martinez’s goal that won the Los Angeles Kings the Stanley Cup in 2014 so exceptional — not that any Cup-winning goal isn’t – is that it was scored by a third-pairing blue-liner who would become one of the top defensive defencemen in the National Hockey League.
Martinez blocks shots and kills penalties, watches the front of the net, moves pucks to his forwards and displays all the detailed tradecraft you would expect from a 35-year-old who is still an essential part of the Vegas Golden Knights.
And Tuesday night, nine years to the day since he buried a rebound in double-overtime for that Stanley Cup-winning goal against the New York Rangers – and three years since the Kings traded him across the California-Nevada state line for a couple of second-round draft picks — Martinez may have the chance to lift again one of the most iconic trophies in sports.
The Golden Knights lead the Florida Panthers 3-1 in the Stanley Cup Final. Oh, yeah, the Martinez Cup-winning goal also came in Game 5 for Los Angeles. Home ice, too.
“First and foremost, you don’t have to point out my age,” Martinez said Monday in a post-practice press conference. “I hope the coaches aren’t listening to this. I’ve been fortunate throughout my career to play with some pretty good hockey clubs, play with some pretty good guys. I had, you know, a lot of really good examples to learn from (in Los Angeles). When you’re young — I know it’s a cliche — but you kind of think that that’s the norm and it certainly isn’t. But that said, getting back here, I mean, this is what you work for your entire life. And I guess I’m just thankful for the opportunity that I’m able to even compete for one, let alone be a final.”
Martinez won Cups with the Kings in 2012 and 2014, and his goalie from those teams, Jonathan Quick, has been backing up Adin Hill during the Knights’ playoff run this spring.
Another Vegas teammate, defenceman Brayden McNabb, was around the Kings’ playoff run in 2014 but did not dress in the post-season after being acquired from the Buffalo Sabres.
“He figured out what was going to help him in this league,” Quick said of Martinez. “And he figured that out at a younger age. He committed to that. He had some guys that he was able to learn from, like Sean O’Donnell and Rob Scuderi and guys like that. He has spent his whole career trying to perfect the way he plays the game, and the role he plays for this team is very important. It is a valuable role defensively — what he does to make the goalie’s job easier and his partner’s job easier. So that and then what he brings to the locker room. . . he keeps the locker room loose and brings a ton of leadership and experience. He just brings so much to a team.”
The Kings’ championship teams had stacked blue lines with defencemen like Drew Doughty and Jake Muzzin, Martinez and Robyn Regehr and Willie Mitchell, as well as role-playing veterans like Greene and Scuderi.
The Golden Knights’ defence is comparably powerful, boasting a pair of elite defencemen in Alex Pietrangelo and Shea Theodore, warriors McNabb and Martinez and a robust third pairing of Nic Hague and Zach Whitecloud that has had a kind of coming-out party in these playoffs.
As always with championship teams, roles are clearly defined and embraced. Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy uses Martinez beside Pietrangelo on the top pairing.
“There’s certain people that you put in your lineup that are competitive as hell and they’re going to do everything they can to win,” Pietrangelo explained. “Marty is one of them. You always talk about the blocked shots, but there’s so many other things that he does.
“He enjoys being around the guys, enjoys taking care of the young guys. Those are all things that create camaraderie on a team. It’s been three years now (with Martinez) and we’ve become really good friends, and the one thing that people don’t talk enough about is he’s a special person. I know it’s a cliche, but he’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. And you put those people in your locker room with the competitive nature that he has, that’s why he has probably had so much success.”
Martinez is the oldest skater on the Knights. On the roster, only Quick, 37, is more senior than the defenceman from Detroit, who is a descendant of Spanish, Canadian and American grandparents.
Martinez led the NHL during the regular season with 244 blocked shots. McNabb was second, 46 blocks behind. They hold the same order league-wide since the Golden Knights began in 2017 with McNabb in the expansion lineup.
Asked what Martinez means to the Knights, Theodore said: “Everything.”
“He’s definitely a glue guy,” he explained. “When you’re around that long, being such a good personality that he is, he’s just such a good guy, I think it’s definitely infectious. Guys kind of joke around with him about blocking shots. . . but at the end of the day, he’s a guy that’s going to do whatever it takes to win. He always does the right things and he’s a treat to play with.
“It’s not by any fluke (that Martinez could win his third Cup). At the end of the day, the right people get put in the right spots to be in those situations. He’s part of an incredible group that we have here.”
Thoughtful and articulate – and literally scarred by time in the NHL – there is a serious, statesmanlike quality to Martinez when he speaks to the media. Behind the dressing room door, however, he is one of the funniest guys on the team.
He was 24 years old when he won his first Stanley Cup with the Kings, 26 when he scored the goal that gave them a second. Martinez turns 36 in July.
“We had a reunion this past summer for the first one, and that was kind of the first time that I had really gone back and reminisced,” Martinez told reporters. “I try to think back on the experience, but in terms of those (Stanley Cups), to be honest, I don’t really think about it a whole lot. I think that’s kind of something that once I’m done playing, I’ll probably reflect on more. But when you’re in it, I mean, it’s so much damn fun, you want to do it again.
“I don’t really think that I live too much in the past; that’ll come later in life. I’m just, right now, focused on trying to do it again.”
Nine years later, and with three chances to win one more game for the Stanley Cup, Martinez probably will.
