It was announced by the Vegas Golden Knights that forward Mark Stone will be lost to injury on a week-to-week basis. He could be back before the conclusion of the regular season if all goes well.
Update on Mark Stone: Coach DeBoer said he’s week-to-week with a lower-body injury and he hopes to have him back before the end of the regular season. #VegasBorn
— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) March 1, 2020
Mark Stone Injured
At first it was indicated that Stone would only be out day-to-day. Now, the Golden Knights will need to determine how to do without him for a longer period of time. He’s a talented forward who has 21 goals, 45 assists in 65 games this season. That kind of production will not be easy to replace. His linemate Max Pacioretty will more than likely miss him more than anyone else. The two together are dynamite offensive performers.
Like any NHL team injuries are part of the game and the team needs to have someone else step up and produce. This injury no doubt will sting the Vegas club’s offence and it already has shown up with the Los Angeles Kings shutting them down 4-1 Sunday.
Stone, 27 stands 6′-4″, 219 pounds and is in his first full year with Vegas after coming over in a trade with the Ottawa Senators at the trade deadline last season. He has 26 goals, 48 assists in 83 games in Vegas. Over his career of seven seasons Stone has 149 goals, 236 assists for 385 points. Stone is not only an excellent scorer, he has great possession numbers to go along with that. His career Corsi is 53.8, and Relative Corsi For is 6.0. He’s improved on those stats while in Sin-City with a Corsi of 57.6, and a Relative Corsi For of 4.4. In other words when he has the puck, things happen.
What This Means Going Forward
The Vegas Golden Knights are a deep team, but losing your second highest scorer is going to be a challenge they need to overcome. Pacioretty may miss Stone the most since the two have amazing chemistry when they on the ice together.
The Vegas team just had their eight-game winning streak snapped and will look to begin a new one when they face the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday night. After that they have a tough five-game road trip so this injury came at a bad time. Still, the team leads the Pacific Division by four points. They need to stay focused on being competitive even without Mark Stone in the lineup.
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