If you bring up the name of Los Angeles Kings defenseman Alec Martinez to hockey fans, many associate it with his Stanley Cup finals-winning goal against the New York Rangers a couple of seasons ago.
But now they can know him in another way, as our selection for Defensive Player of the Month.
Martinez closed the month with a pretty impressive streak. He did not allow a 5-on-5 goal in his last nine games, a streak that spanned almost 142 minutes. Over the last two months, Martinez is a plus-11 over 25 games. He was plus-5 in 27 games in the two months before that.
Martinez ended the month sixth in the NHL in Hockey-Reference.com’s Defensive Point Shares stat (in which his teammate, Drew Doughty, ranks first). Martinez has never ranked in the top 10 in that stat, in part because he has never played as many games in a season as he has this season (62).
Martinez edged out Dalton Prout of the Columbus Blue Jackets. Prout held opponents scoreless in 5-on-5 even-strength situations in 11 of 13 games. He was a huge part of the Blue Jackets’ turnaround. Columbus went 7-3-3 in February. He had a positive Corsi differential at 5-on-5 in nine of 13 games.
Prout is an example of a nonscoring difference-maker. He had one goal and one assist in just more than 211 minutes played this month.
One other highly worthy candidate was Hampus Lindholm of the Anaheim Ducks. He is got it done on the offensive and defensive ends. He scored five goals in 14 games after scoring three in his first 46.
Perhaps as impressive: In the last four games of Anaheim’s win streak at the end of February, Lindholm was on the ice for 57 shot attempts at 5-on-5 and allowed 26.
