Not many aspiring 19-year-olds get to see power-play time in their first NHL game. That\u2019s why a lot of eyes were on Porter Martone ahead of his Flyers debut Tuesday night against the Capitals at Capital One Arena.<\/p>\n
Martone was a force at Michigan State, which concluded play Saturday in an NCAA tournament loss to Wisconsin. Just a few days later, Martone is getting into action in a critical game for the Flyers.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not exactly a secret the Flyers could use help on their power play, which is on schedule to finish last in the NHL for the fourth time in the last five seasons.<\/p>\n
Maybe Martone can change that. He\u2019s joining a PP unit which already has right-handers Travis Konecny and Owen Tippett, and one more righty might be able to help the man-advantage proficiency.<\/p>\n
Martone scored eight of his 25 goals on the power play in his one year at Michigan State, so he should know his way around the net when the Flyers are up a man.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I\u2019m just happy to be in the lineup,\u201d Martone said after morning skate at Bank One Arena. \u201cI do like to play on the power play. I\u2019ve got a good hockey IQ. I can make plays.\u201d<\/p>\n
The question is whether Martone can fit in right away. The same can be said for even strength as well. At the morning skate, Martone was working on a line with Konecny and Christian Dvorak. Both Konecny and Martone are righthanded shots, so Konecny was scheduled to move to the left side.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been watching him (Konecny) play a lot this year,\u201d Martone said. \u201cObviously it\u2019s not going to click right away. You have to build some chemistry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martone, the sixth overall pick in last year\u2019s draft, said he watched as many Flyers games as he could on television over the past season when he wasn\u2019t playing himself.<\/p>\n
He said he\u2019s been working on becoming more of a shooter than just a passer. That could explain why he was able to have as many goals as assists (25) in college<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year (2024-25 in junior hockey) I was more of a passer and playmaker,\u201d he said. \u201cThis year I added more of a goalscoring element. It\u2019s something I worked on. Big thing for me was getting to the net. That\u2019s where you score goals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coach Rick Tocchet doesn\u2019t want to put too much pressure on the rookie, but the Flyers are involved in a playoff drive, so every bit of playing time matters.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a hockey player, just play, we don\u2019t want to overload him,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cHe actually worked on the power play (at the morning skate) and he had some good intelligence out there. Just let him play, have some fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tocchet planned to get Martone involved in action as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s important I get him out there quickly,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cGuy makes a mistake early, he\u2019s not going to sit on the bench. It\u2019s like anything, as a coach, you see how the game is going. But definitely try to make him feel comfortable out there. That\u2019s something I have to do for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Getting Martone onto the power play didn\u2019t seem like too much of a risk for a unit hitting at only around 15 percent.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like the righty sticks,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cNow Trevor (Zegras, who quarterbacks the unit) has three righties that all can shoot the puck.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tocchet said Martone looks like a natural on the PP.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust looking people off, the deception,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cYou can tell he\u2019s been on the power play.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not many aspiring 19-year-olds get to see power-play time in their first NHL game. That\u2019s why a lot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":533591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5112],"tags":[1468,5,4,1467,56,5205,43,5095],"class_list":{"0":"post-533590","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-flyers","8":"tag-flyers","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","13":"tag-philadelphiaflyers","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116326104220391321","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/533591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}