DALLAS -- The Vegas Golden Knights will not repeat as Stanley Cup champions, but they are not done. They have contended for the Cup since joining the NHL as an expansion team in 2017-18 and expect to keep contending.
After a 2-1 loss to the Dallas Stars in Game 7 of the Western Conference First Round at American Airlines Center on Sunday, captain Mark Stone said he had no doubt they would be right back in the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 12 months getting ready for another run.
“Last year was the most fun I think all of us have had ever playing the game of hockey, playing in this league for sure,” Stone said. “We want to get back there. It’s not easy to repeat. It doesn’t happen often. But at the same time, we believe that we should be competing for the Stanley Cup every year, so it starts as of Day One of training camp next year. Guys will have good off-seasons, will rest, recover and use this feeling to kind of fuel the fire to put our team back with an opportunity to get where we were last year.”
Stone paused for a moment.
“People will say it’s addicting, and it is,” he continued. “I live for this [stuff]. I think most of us do, right? As a hockey player, this is the most fun time that you’re ever going to have playing hockey. You want to be competing for the Stanley Cup, so when you do lose and get eliminated, it’s hard. It kind of crushes your soul for a couple days. Seeing the next round start, it [stinks]. But yeah, we’ve always been good at having a chip on our shoulder, so we’ve got to use this as another chip.”
Vegas has set a high standard. The Golden Knights have made the playoffs six times in their seven seasons, and this is only the second time they have lost in the first round. Since their inaugural season, they’ve won 57 playoff games, second to the Tampa Bay Lightning (62), and 11 playoff series, second to the Lightning (13).
This team had the potential to repeat, and you could argue it might have -- or at least would have gone on a longer playoff run -- if not for injuries in the regular season. After starting with a seven-game winning streak and 12-game point streak (11-0-1), Vegas ran into injury trouble and ended up with the second wild card in the West, drawing a first-round matchup with Dallas, the top team in the conference.
Injuries helped give the Golden Knights the salary-cap space to add defenseman Noah Hanifin and forwards Tomas Hertl and Anthony Mantha in trades. But Hertl was coming off knee surgery. He was one of nine Vegas players who had surgery this season. After playing six games down the stretch, Hertl jumped into the playoffs on a line with Stone, who had missed the last 26 regular-season games with a lacerated spleen. Although the Golden Knights entered the playoffs with a full lineup, they struggled with chemistry, shuffling forward lines and defense pairs often in the series.
“I think that would be the unfortunate part,” coach Bruce Cassidy said. “They came [back] and we did get healthy enough for the playoffs, so that was the positive, and now you’re trying to get a team up to speed in a hurry, and obviously I didn’t do a good enough job of that. But I mean, that’s a lot of surgeries in one year for guys to overcome, and it defines your game. If we could have built it a little bit better in March and April, maybe it’s a little smoother in the playoff round, but that’s the hand you’re dealt. We needed to be one goal better at the end of the day. That’s it.”
