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a lecture from his head coach in regards to a few penalties he took. Letang said part of the problem was mental. “I’m not going to lie, the first four games of the playoffs I was scared to make mistakes,” Letang said. “I got criticism last year on my defensive play so I was a little bit on my heels, trying to accomplish too much.” Letang started by concentrating on cleaning up his defensive play. Late in the Columbus series he went over the boards with a defense-first mentality. Once his defensive play improved, he started to once again assert himself on the rush and creating offense. “I was trying to play my game,” Letang said. “My game is playing aggressive, skating and being in the play all the time, supporting my forwards. Once I was able to do that my game kind of changed.” Bylsma saw the transformation in his game. And part of it may be his defensive partner. “Kris did learn to trust his game a little bit more as he got his feet wet,” Bylsma said. “Last night the way he defended with his skating was huge for us. Playing next to Paul [Martin] has been really good for us back there. That pairing defensively shut down, but also what he brings to our team has been really good.” Letang, who worked with Scuderi at the start of the postseason, switched to partner with Martin after Brooks Orpik was knocked out of the lineup with an undisclosed injury. “Playing with ‘Paulie’ is different than playing with ‘Scuds,’” Letang said. “Scuds stays back and makes plays from the backend. With Paulie, we understand each other pretty well. We play the same type of game. It’s been good. We’re reading each other pretty well.” The Penguins are ecstatic with Letang’s play, but more so happy just to have him back. “It’s just a blessing to see him out there playing and playing at the level he is for our team and playing so many minutes,” Bylsma said. “It’s nothing more than a blessing that he’s out there playing for us.” 121