Mark Stone still puts heavy blame and a ton of pressure on himself

Mark Stone still cannot shake it off… But he knows he has to. Back in June, the Montreal Canadiens eliminated his Vegas Golden Knights from playoff contention to clinch a spot in the Stanley Cup final, and Stone was quick to come down hard on his performance during the series. 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 back in June. “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.”

On Tuesday, Stone met with reporters and was once again putting the blame on himself for Vegas’ elimination back in the semi-finals. But he is ready to move on and focus on the 2021-22 season, which kicks off against the Seattle Kraken at T-Mobile Arena on Oct. 12. 

“I think there were a lot of things that went through my mind for a month, thinking about it,” the Vegas captain said per NHL.com. “I don’t think I handled the pressure well. I don’t think I … obviously, my game changed because of it. I think there were a lot of guys that felt the same kind of pressure, and we didn’t battle adversity as well as we [would’ve] liked.”

As head coach Pete DeBoer had mentioned then, Stone was not the only one who did not find the back of the net with Max Pacioretty, Alex Tuch, Jonathan Marchessault, William Karlsson  (14) and  Reilly Smith combining for just two goals against Montreal and the power play went 0-for-15 in the series.

“You just have to find that one or two goals that puts you over the top,” Stone said. “We felt like we didn’t score, but we lost in six games. So we score a goal in Game 3 (a 3-2 overtime loss), we win the game. We score a goal in Game 6 (a 3-2 overtime loss), we win the game. It’s not huge. It’s just little things, right?”

Stone went on to compare himself to three-time Stanley Cup champion Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins, stating that the superstar “just finds a way to get that one little goal here or one great play here.”

“I think our team has to find that — myself, Pacioretty, Karlsson, Marchessault, Smith, all those guys that are relied on to score. At the same time, we have 20 guys that can do it. We just need to, as a team, collective team, find a way to do it.”

Funny that Stone says he couldn’t handle the pressure : he just added a ton on his shoulders with this comparison!