Byron had time to skate, wind up and put everything he had into a slap shot as if this were a hardest-shot competition, not the third period of Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Semifinals.
Martinez turned and took it for the team. The defenseman had three blocked shots and scored a goal in 23:52 in Vegas' 4-1 victory at T-Mobile Arena on Monday.
"We joke around and we call him 'Warrior,' but he really is," Golden Knights defenseman Brayden McNabb said Tuesday. "He gets in front of everything."
That's only part of the story, though.
It's not just that Martinez gets in front of everything.
It's how much more he has done it than anyone else this season. He blocked 168 shots in the regular season, 40 more than the next-closest player, Edmonton Oilers defenseman Adam Larsson, and has blocked 55 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, 15 more than the next-closest player, New York Islanders defenseman Scott Mayfield.
It's what it takes to do it again and again and again, while contributing offensively too.
"It's just how he is as a person," McNabb said. "He'll do anything to win."
Byron's shot struck Martinez in the left foot. Martinez went down on his left knee, tried to get up and fell on all fours. Then he got up again and hobbled to the bench. Fleury used his goalie stick to give him a push in the backside.
Martinez's shift ended at 2:54 of the third. His next one began at 4:11.
In other words, he didn't miss a shift.
"He's amazed me this year with his ability to play through things and still be the first guy on the ice stepping in front of slap shots and doing all those sacrificial things that help you go on a run," Golden Knights coach Peter DeBoer said.
Martinez often doesn't practice and plays anyway, and DeBoer has called him a game-time decision so often that reporters usually don't ask about him anymore. He was not available for interviews Monday or Tuesday, probably in the training room on the mend for Game 2 on Wednesday (9 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, SN, TVAS).
"You've got to see him day to day and see what he does and how he prepares himself, the pain and the bruises and the things he plays through, and [he] does it without complaining and shows up the next night and stands in front of another seven or eight shots," DeBoer said.
Martinez isn't afraid to take a shot, either.
In the second period Monday, Golden Knights defenseman Shea Theodore wound up for a slap shot in the high slot. Just as he was about to hit the puck, he stopped abruptly, then passed to the right circle.
Martinez was wide open and one-timed the puck into the net as Montreal goalie Carey Price dived across the crease, giving Vegas a 2-0 lead.
