Do the Golden Knights want to win this season? Of course they do. Everyone in the NHL wants to win the Stanley Cup. But there are varying degrees of want. Do you want a ham sandwich for lunch? Sure. Do you want a brand new car? Heck, yeah.
Mark Stone smiled at the question. On one hand, the answer seems a touch obvious. But Stone appreciated there was an underlying subtlety.
“Yeah, I mean, I’ve said it numerous times. I understand why guys continue to play, continue to fight through injury, or anything to continue to play to give yourself a chance to win the Stanley Cup. I get it now,” said Stone, captain of the Golden Knights and the author of an historic hat trick in his team’s Cup-clinching victory last spring. “You know, I was in a situation last year in which I wasn’t sure if I was going to play again. I did everything I could to get back to try and do something. Did I know if it was going to be worth it? No. Now looking at it, I would do it a hundred times over again. It’s one of the greatest feelings I’ve ever had when playing sports.
"That’s why I’m here and ready to go," he added. "I’m looking forward to the season. I think when you look at everybody, they’re ready to go and they want to do it again. We’ve got a lot of guys coming back as multiple Stanley Cup champions and they have that same hunger. I think you look at everybody who's coming back, and we want to try and win again. We want to put ourselves in a good position to win again and we’re not saying that it’s going to be easy because it definitely is not going to be easy. Every team is getting better and everybody’s pushing to try and get better and everyone’s going to want to beat us. We’re in the same situation. We want to beat them. We want to win again. So, to answer your question: Yes.”
Predictions abound this week in the NHL. They’re mostly meaningless. A few will prove to be correct. But anyone who claims to have correctly selected the Stanley Cup winner due to some scientific methodology is full of baloney. Injuries are the great equalizer in the NHL and no one knows how the health of all 32 league teams will unfold.
Vegas wrapped up the preseason with a 3-3-1 mark. But as VGK TV play-by-play man Dave Goucher said on a Scripps Sports TV broadcast last week, “I cannot remember the preseason record of any team in any sport.”
The above words must be credited Goucher but a lot of us would fall into the same camp.
Preseason games do not count in the standings. No points are awarded. GMs ask coaches to mix up lines and play prospects. Veteran players already assured of a lineup spot use the games to fine tune their games but with the No. 1 priority of getting through the spate of matches uninjured.
The Golden Knights had two players, Zach Whitecloud and Alec Martinez, suffer injuries in the practice games. Whitecloud required surgery and is listed as week-to-week. Head coach Bruce Cassidy said Martinez was also week-to-week but not expected to be "too long term."
The last two games of the preseason saw Vegas ice an NHL lineup against close to complete squads from the Colorado Avalanche and Los Angeles Kings. In both games, Vegas fell behind before finding its stride and exploding in the third period to win.
The Golden Knights, despite winning the Pacific Division and the Western Conference in the regular season, flew a bit under the radar last season.
“No one called us a wagon or thought of us as a wagon until we got to the conference final stage in the playoffs. Or even until the final,” head coach Bruce Cassidy said this summer.
Vegas won’t be sneaking up on anyone this season.
“We’re the hunted. Everyone will want to try and knock us off. But I think our group will embrace that challenge,” said defenseman Nic Hague.
Cassidy agreed.
“I say bring it on. Our team loves competition,” he said.
As for satisfaction or complacency setting in, Stone says last season’s championship will have the opposite effect.
“I’m satisfied with the way 2022-23 ended. There’s no denying that. But unless we win in 2023-24, I’m not going to sit here and be satisfied. I play this game to win,” said Stone. “Obviously, we get compensated very well to play this game but the ultimate reason we play this game, one is to take care of our families and two is to win the Stanley Cup. I’ve been on teams where we’ve been in the bottom of the standings and I’ll tell you what, it’s not quite as fun as when you’re winning and competing and doing everything in your power trying to win a playoff series and the Stanley Cup. There was obviously some heartache along the way. We made some runs, but I still really enjoyed the grind. Even when we lost in the Conference Finals because we were putting ourselves in a spot and we knew how hard it was to get to the top of the mountaintop. And I just want to keep doing that over and over again, giving ourselves opportunities to try and win again.”
