The 2021-22 season was a tough year for Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Alec Martinez.
The two-time Stanley Cup winner missed more than four months due to a skate-slice to the face, before finishing the final month of the season.
An opportunity for a clean slate awaits Martinez this season. Fortunately for the veteran, he has been able to get a head start in preseason after missing the first three games due to what he called "a little tweak" when he spoke to the media on Friday.
"I feel good," Martinez said. "It's been good to get into a couple games, especially with a change in our systems and things like that. You got to get the reps in. When you're changing a system like that, you got to break old habits. You got to develop new ones. ... You can't go over every possible scenario and video, so that's the benefit of playing games, that if certain things happen, certain things come up, and you're able to discuss them as a group and with the coaches."
Martinez went into depth on what exactly those new habits are.
"I think it's just where to be in particular situations. Certain reads to make. I think that we have a little bit more freedom, at least for D-men, in making plays on the breakouts and things like that. So there's just little nuances of the game. If [Alex Pietrangelo is] going back for the puck, I want to always be there for him and give him an out. When we change up some of the things that we're able to do, you got to know where to be and when so you can be reliable for the other guy. We talk about it all the time where you don't want to telegraph anything, but we need to be predictable to ourselves."
Martinez scored three goals and five assists in his 26 games played for the Golden Knights last season.
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