from David Shoalts of the Globe and Mail,
Paul Martin leads the Pittsburgh Penguins in playoff points.
That is nice for the veteran defenceman but it says just about all you need to know about the Penguins in their first-round NHL playoff series against the Columbus Blue Jackets, which resumes Saturday. Martin has eight assists in four games, double the number of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin and the same number of goals as the superstar pair – zero.
The only other thing to know is that after Marc-André Fleury tantalized the fans into thinking he was the playoff goaltender of 2009 over the first three games, in the space of about three minutes in Game 4 he turned into the post-season flop of 2010 through 2013. In other words, he wilted when the heat was on. Maybe that’s why they call him Flower.
So once again the Penguins, as talented a team as you can find in the salary-cap era, are at the centre of a playoff storm. Since winning the Stanley Cup in 2009 and being declared the NHL’s next dynasty, the Pens have been as far as the Eastern Conference final once, where they were summarily dismissed by the Boston Bruins last year, and were bounced in the first round twice.
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