Islanders Matt Martin Reflects After His First Fight Of Season; Teammates React

VANCOUVER — Lost in the New York Islanders’ most impressive win of the 2024-25 season was Matt Martin dropping the gloves with Vancouver Canucks defenseman Vincent Desharnais.

The 6’7 defenseman had gone after Islanders forward Maxim Tsyplakov before checking Martin into the boards.

Martin took exception to that, and the two squared off with under six minutes to play in the third period, with New York up 3-1:

“It’s part of my job. You don’t really think too much about it once you’re in it and just do it, and obviously the game had some chippiness to it tonight, so sometimes those things are called for,” Martin told The Hockey News. “And it’s just a good one overall.”

It’s been a minute since Martin fought. His last bout was on Apr. 2 against Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Jared Tinordi.

Fighting hasn’t been as prominent in the NHL as it once was, and Martin’s fights per season have certainly decreased as his career has gone on.

Given what transpired with Martin, not having a contract come training camp and signing a professional tryout (PTO) before eventually getting a one-year deal, it was cool for his teammates to see him do what he does best.

“It’s great. Obviously, he knows his job, and he shows up when he needs to show up,” Ryan Pulock told THN. “He did so again tonight. Obviously, it’s nice to have a guy like that who you can always count on to protect this team. He’s done it for a long time, and he’s always going to be there doing it.”

The job of a fight is to get the boys going, and his teammates certainly love to see it.

“It’s great. I think we saw that coming a little bit based on a couple of the hits before that. They went after Tsippy a little bit,” Islanders captain Anders Lee said. “But Marty always rises to the occasion. He’s done it for a long time, and it takes a lot of heart, and there’s no questioning that from him.

“He makes all the little plays on the wall — those are big plays that keep everything going —  and he was a big part of our night tonight. We were able to feed off of that [fight].”

Martin now has 156 career fights under his belt and sits 39 games shy of 1,000 for his NHL career.