Paul Martin: Isles Series, Fleury Criticism Need To Be Wakeup Calls
PITTSBURGH (93-7 The Fan) – Penguins defenseman Paul Martin joined Starkey, Miller and Mueller on Monday to look back at the first round and forward to the team's second-round match-up against the Senators.
Martin thinks the Penguins benefited from being held to the fire against the Islanders.
"You know it's going to be a tough series no matter who you play," Martin said. "The expectations of the team that we have are going to be high no matter what. But to have that tough series, I think it was good for us to realize where we're at and how much better we need to play to make it easy on ourselves."
He feels that the team needs to rally around Marc-Andre Fleury, or whoever is in net for them.
"The whole beginning of the series defensively, we didn't play great in front of him, and didn't do the job that we needed to do to help him out," Martin said. "The blame ended up going on him, which isn't fair. And I think we see that, and that's motivation for us as players."
He thinks he's finally getting back into a groove after a sub-par start to his Penguins career.
"I think I'm just back to my game," Martin said. "I think when I left New Jersey, I knew the type of player I was, and came here and maybe wasn't comfortable or tried to do things that you don't have a role. I think that Shero was great putting me back with Brooks."
The interview can be heard here:
