Mark Stone comes down hard on himself for Knights’ elimination

He shoulders the blame in heartbreaking manner…

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 2 years ago
Mark Stone comes down hard on himself for Knights’ elimination
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Emotions still raw after the Montreal Canadiens eliminated his Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday, captain Mark Stone came down hard on his performance during the series. The star forward was held without a point in six games against the Habs as expectations were high for the captain to get his team to the Stanley Cup final. 

Fans expected more because he excelled most of the season as the franchise’s first captain. Stone scored at more than a point-per-game clip in the regular calendar and was a Selke Trophy finalist for the second time in his career. In this series, we thought we’d see the Mark Stone who delivered a crucial overtime goal in Game 5 as part of the Knights’ second-round upset of the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche.

He did not show up and after the Golden Knights’ elimination and Stone, who was a minus-4 in the series, harshly criticized himself during the press conference. 

“I got skunked this series,” Stone said. “That can’t happen. I’m the captain of this team, the leader of this team. I take a lot of responsibility for what just occurred.”


The captain did not mention how he missed his usual center in Chandler Stephenson for half the series and was often put against Habs’ center Phillip Danault’s excellent defensive line.

But fans do remember how he had a giveaway that led directly to a Montreal power-play goal in Game 5. But his head coach Pete DeBoer said his captain doesn’t need to shoulder all the blame: he wasn’t the only one not scoring.

“I’m not surprised he’s taking that on himself, but that’s not a load he needs to carry and definitely not alone,” DeBoer said. “There’s another door we’ve got to find a way to barge through at this time of year. I think everybody’s got to look in the mirror. Obviously coaches included.”
Source: Twitter