How Paul Martin wound up leading the playoffs in scoring after one week.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the top of your 2014 Stanley Cup Playoff Scoring Race, Pittsburgh Penguins defenceman Paul Martin! Despite not even having a single goal to his name, Martin has lit it up through the four games of round one, producing exactly a pair of dishes in each outing thus far for a total of eight!

While the two-time U.S. Olympian was never exactly known for his sublime offensive prowess, he's shown glimpses over the past decade that he can occasionally spurt some out. Although this run so far has been something out of even his playbook, exactly doubling both Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby's assist & point outputs.

He's mostly been paired with fellow U.S. Olympian (2010), Brooks Orpik on the (default) second pairing, playing with him in all three situations more than any other teammate.

Paul Martin Most Common Pairing Generator via Frozen Pools

Martin not only leads the Penguins' D-Core in TOI (Time on Ice), but by far is the TOI leader on the team in general at 27:55 min/game. Although, being a blue-liner, that's still par for the course, despite the hefty minutes Crosby pulls in. He also leads the team with a correlating 32 shifts per game until this point.

Martin has really flourished on both special teams units, netting the majority (five of eight) of his points either on the power play (three assists) and while killing penalties (two shorthanded helpers).

He's showing last season's playoff performance was no joke, and that he truly is becoming a premier post-season clutch player, offensively, aside for his well-known stay-at-home defensive exploits.

Heading into last season, Martin had never once recorded more than four points in a given playoff run. However he really stepped up his game with two goals and nine assists, for a total of 11 points in 15 contests. Through four games this month, he is already on pace to surpass his all-time playoff assist record next game!

In fact, he's already more than half way to his full season point total of 15 and exactly two-thirds of the way to hitting his regular season assist total of 12! (Mind you, he only played 39 games this season due to injury recovery. Although, given that he's done all this through a mere four games since last week, his PPG (points per–game) rate has gone through the roof (2.0 PPG ~ ASP rate).

Of course, we can't reasonably expect Martin to continue putting up two assists per game as long as Pittsburgh is still alive, though I do believe he can keep up a higher level than his regular season norm. Given what he did last spring, and in big time competitions in the past (Olympics predominantly), he has proved worthy of the extra minutes awarded to him, and as such should continue to produce at a much higher rate than he had been during the regular season.

The recent surge and inherent confidence certainly doesn't hurt martin either. The trust in him from teammates has definitely grown as well, and is quite visible, especially on the power play, getting the puck as often as Kris Letang usually was been accustomed to, pre-medical emergency.

Also, it is clear that his 43 games missed this season has enabled him to reach full stride in his game, just as the playoffs were nearing, recording yet another multi-assist performance in the final week of the regular season.

** Letang has returned to action but has been eased into the 2^nd unit as he makes his way back toward mid-season form.

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