Mark Stone is seemingly relaxed in a ball cap, T-shirt and shorts following a brisk skate with his teammates on Wednesday of this week. But mention the negative chatter which has surrounded his team since last season ended and the answer belies the notion that he’s living in any state of satisfaction.
“We feel disrespected. Which is fine. If people want to say we suck, I don’t give a s—. It is, what it is,” said the Golden Knights captain. “But we have to prove ourselves. We have to prove it to ourselves, to our fans and to management that we’re right there with the contenders. We made some changes but I still feel like we can compete at the highest level.”
The Golden Knights, sitting in first place in the Pacific Division at the start of last February, famously slid over the final months of the regular season and missed the postseason for the first time in franchise history.
A bulk of the club’s observers skip past the 512 man games lost and go straight to the doom and gloom pills.
Stone, who played in less than half of his team’s games last season and was largely incapacitated due to his back injury in those in which he participated, says missing the postseason has tweaked the attitude of himself and his teammates.
“That’s fine. People can think what they want. After spending the summer in Canada, you wouldn’t believe how often I was told how bad we were. It’s great. I like that. All of a sudden we’re David instead of Goliath. It’s alright. I believe in this team. I believe in the guys, I believe in the leadership,” said the 30-year-old, who scored just nine goals and 30 points in 37 games last season. “It’ll be exciting to have a full training camp with the coaching staff. I still love the grit on the team, the passion on the team. People can think what they want. The only telling part of the tale is the performance on the ice. We know it’s not going to be easy but we’re still confident.”
It’s become a post-series ritual for vanquished players to release a laundry list of their injuries. Stone doesn’t buy into the process. He keeps his hurts to himself. So when he played portions of the last two seasons plagued by a back injury, it was up to fans and media to guess. Was he injured or was his performance poor for another reason?
Finally, he couldn’t hide the obvious any longer and last spring he announced he was leaning towards surgery on his back. After talking to other players around the league and a long list of doctors, he made the decision to go forward with an operation.
“It was a slow process. My mindset was, I couldn’t do what I did last year again. I wasn’t in a spot where I could just try to fight through it and rehab through the injury,” explained Stone. “So, I got some second opinions. It had gotten worse through the season; ultimately, I decided to have the surgery. I had it done May 17th and it was grinding after that. The first month you don’t do anything. You feel like you’re getting better so you want to do stuff but being patient is key. A month in, you start moving and you start to feel better.”
Stone started skating in Canada during the month of August and recently arrived in Vegas where he’s been skating with teammates for the last two weeks.
“I feel good. Feels good to be skating with the guys again,” he said. “It’s a long grind and you never know if it’s going to work. I feel like I’m starting to make strides. It’s kind of like climbing a mountain. You get to a spot where it caps out and you have to work through some more. But I made some good strides this summer.”
Being defiant is one thing. Actually proving the naysayers wrong is a different thing altogether.
“Staying healthy. That’s one. I don’t know if that’s just a fluke or guys taking more pride in their bodies. I’m one of those guys,” said Stone. “Power play needs to be better, keep more pucks out of our net and just score clutch goals. We had chances to make the playoffs and we couldn’t get that big goal. In the past we got those goals and we have to get them. back to it.”
GM Kelly McCrimmon has tweaked the roster a bit this offseason with the biggest change seeing Phil Kessel come in and Max Pacioretty move out.
“It’s exciting when you can add veterans. Especially ones who have won and had the success (Kessel’s) had. We’ve all got a bone to pick with the league. We’ve got stuff to prove. So he does. He’s going to fit right in with the group and add an element we haven’t had,” said Stone.
McCrimmon also traded for goalie Adin Hill. Part of a captain’s role is to welcome in new players. Maybe it’s a rookie Brendan Brisson who earns a roster spot. Or a veteran like Kessel making a big impact after moving to a new team.
“Everyone is a different person; everyone has a different personality. I’m sure my conversation with Phil will be different from a goalie, but I’m excited to add guys and obviously, there are changes every year, there are going to be changes every year. I hate losing guys, but then I get excited to get different guys,” he said. “That’s the way the salary cap has been on all teams. There are teams who’ve won that lost guys, it’s just the nature of the business. We’re excited about the guys that are added, and now it’s about getting on the ice “