PITTSBURGH \u2014 Stuart Skinner was as frozen as the statue of Mario Lemieux just outside Highmark Gate at PPG Paints Arena.<\/p>\n
Did Porter Martone seriously just do that? Did a 19-year-old kid who was playing college hockey three weeks earlier to the day, really just drive the puck deep, slam on the brakes creating immediate separation from a defending Noel Acciari, and fire an against-the-grain missile on his back foot, short side, bar down, past the 6-foot-4 goaltender?<\/p>\n
Skinner\u2019s mask hid whatever look of shock must have been painted on his face. His body language said it all, though. After remaining locked in position with a frozen glove hand at the ready for a moment or two after the puck had already bounced in and out, Skinner then slowly, confusingly turned around to peer at the net behind him.<\/p>\n
What just happened?<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst, kind of when I stopped up there, I scanned the ice to look for someone open,\u201d Martone explained of the goal. \u201cThey had pretty good coverage, so I tried to use (Acciari) as a screen. Tried to shoot there, and luckily it went in. It was a big goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Travis Sanheim\u2019s tiebreaker midway through the third period was the most important play \u2014 and was also remarkably skillful \u2014 in the Philadelphia Flyers\u2019 3-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday in their first playoff game in six years, it was the rookie\u2019s astonishing score that sent Flyers fans online into a tizzy.<\/p>\n
Martone acknowledged that \u201cas a teenager\u201d he can\u2019t completely disassociate from social media. \u201cBut for me, I just try to not get caught up in it,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n
Good luck with that if you keep making those sorts of plays, Porter.<\/p>\n
The circumstances under which Martone arrived in Philadelphia, joining the Flyers late in the season and making some key plays to help them clinch an unlikely playoff berth, coupled with a dazzling highlight-reel goal in his playoff debut against a hated rival, suggest it\u2019s not too early to believe Martone could be on a short path to becoming the face of the franchise. If the Flyers make any sort of spring playoff run, or even if Martone just keeps contributing against the Penguins on a Flyers team that\u2019s now widely viewed as on the rise, it\u2019s going to be difficult for Martone to not to get a fuller sense of just what\u2019s going on here \u2014 whether he\u2019s scrolling on his phone or not.<\/p>\n
Fortunately for him, he has someone he can lean on.<\/p>\n
Matthew Schaefer is Martone\u2019s good friend, playing with him on Team Canada in both the Under-18s in 2024 and the World Junior Championships in 2025. The first overall pick in the 2025 draft \u2014 five spots ahead of where the Flyers took Martone \u2014 Schaefer seemingly resurrected a franchise all by himself, helping what looked to be an aging New York Islanders team stuck in the mushy middle become relevant and fun again.<\/p>\n
Considering what\u2019s happened in such a short period of time, Martone could conceivably do the same in Philadelphia. He may be prepared for it, too. Martone and Schaefer kept in touch during Schaefer\u2019s massively successful rookie season while Martone was marinating at Michigan State.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d call him a lot of times throughout the year, ask him how things were going,\u201d Martone told The Athletic after a Flyers team practice on Sunday. \u201cYou obviously see him, he\u2019s a special talent, what he did this year. Not many people can do that. I stayed in touch with him throughout the year. He gave me tips for when it was my time to make the jump.\u201d<\/p>\n
Was there any specific piece of advice from Schaefer that was particularly valuable?<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the big thing that made him successful was, he was himself,\u201d Martone said. \u201cYou see how much of an impact he made on that organization, how much he contributed to that team. For me, that\u2019s what I try to do coming here. Just be who I am, as a player and as a person.\u201d<\/p>\n
What was also notable about Martone\u2019s Game 1 goal is that he was mostly quiet in the game to that point. A high-volume shooter when he\u2019s at his best, including 32 shots in his first nine regular-season games, that third-period goal was his only attempt on net in nearly 16 minutes of ice time. That\u2019s despite Martone playing on the top power-play unit, too, as the Flyers went a discouraging 0-for-3.<\/p>\n
Coach Rick Tocchet suggested Martone may have been a little overwhelmed at the start of Game 1. Not that anyone would blame him, of course, as the Penguins\u2019 home arena was easily the loudest atmosphere the young Flyers have been in all season. There were surely some nerves at play for Martone and many others.<\/p>\n
Still, that Martone \u2014 or Marty McFlyer, as he\u2019s been dubbed by the team\u2019s social media team \u2014 was able to make that kind of an impact on the game despite not being all that effective earlier speaks to what kind of player he is, and, perhaps, what kind of player he can become.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s maturity,\u201d Tocchet said after the game. \u201cThere\u2019s going to be some games you don\u2019t have it for 30, 40 minutes. He\u2019s trying to figure (out) the pace. He had a couple of turnovers. He knew it \u2014 and then he gets a goal like that. It\u2019s hard to find guys like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Flyers fans know that all too well, particularly after watching Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin for the better part of the last two decades. Schaefer\u2019s quick emergence after the Islanders got lucky in the draft lottery last year surely had some Flyers fans wondering why they couldn\u2019t ever enjoy that kind of good fortune.<\/p>\n
Martone\u2019s arrival and immediate success offer some hope that maybe they finally did.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe seems to be a quick learner out there,\u201d said Christian Dvorak, who has been Martone\u2019s linemate since his arrival. \u201cI think to fit in right away, just (his) hockey IQ, the way he sees the ice, and how smart he is \u2014 that\u2019s not easy to do right out of college.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Martone might have been trying to avoid social media on Saturday night and into Sunday, he still got a fair amount of messages from friends and family. Martone became the youngest Flyers player to ever score in his playoff debut, and just the fifth teenager to score a game-winning goal in his first Stanley Cup playoff game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re just really happy we got the win,\u201d Martone said of those texting and calling him. \u201cThey want to continue to see the Flyers play hockey.\u201d<\/p>\n
They\u2019re not the only ones now, as the Flyers get set to host their first home playoff game in eight years, in front of what is likely to be the most boisterous crowd in a very long time. They will be there to watch the team, but there will be plenty of eyes trained on No. 94 now, too.<\/p>\n
Martone is embracing the moment as best he can.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Stanley Cup playoffs, it\u2019s a dream come true,\u201d Martone said. \u201cIt\u2019s really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2014 Stuart Skinner was as frozen as the statue of Mario Lemieux just outside Highmark Gate at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5110],"tags":[5,122,3328,159,5190,5189,4,56],"class_list":{"0":"post-556715","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-islanders","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-islanders","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-islanders","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkislanders","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-philadelphia-flyers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556715","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=556715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}