Jae C. Hong / AP
Vegas Golden Knights celebrate a goal by Mark Stone during the third period against the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022, in Los Angeles. The Golden Knights won 4-3.
Published Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022 | 9:54 p.m.
Updated Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022 | 11:32 p.m.
LOS ANGELES — When Mark Stone was helped to the locker room at Crypto.com Arena almost a year ago to the day, he sat at the same stall he was at this time around. At that time, he was hunched in pain, scared of the unknown.
Tuesday night provided a more jovial mood for the Golden Knights captain.
Stone scored the game-winning goal with 24.9 seconds left, a wrist shot that beat Los Angeles goalie Jonathan Quick at the far post, giving Vegas a 4-3 win over the Kings in their season opener in Southern California.
Oct. 14, 2021 will go down as a day Stone calls "a bad experience," but not the penultimate encounter that defined the back issues that forced him to have offseason surgery. He experienced the surging pain three different times before going through the lumbar discectomy procedure in May.
But the image of him being helped off the Kings' home ice, barely able to put weight on his body, is the lasting image when reflecting on Stone's back. For at least one night, Stone put those worries to rest, celebrating and expressing himself in a way that he hasn't in a long time.
"It just feels good to be out there with the guys," Stone said. "Glad I feel the way that I feel."
Stone's goal capped off a thrilling conclusion to new coach Bruce Cassidy's official Vegas debut, and moving the Golden Knights to 5-1 all-time in season openers. A 1-1 game entering the third period saw the Golden Knights take the lead twice before the Kings responded.
Jack Eichel gave Vegas its first lead 1:27 into the third after converting on a third rebound attempt as a power play expired. The Kings answered less than three minutes later with forward Adrian Kempe scoring on a wide-open net after Anže Kopitar pulled Vegas goalie Logan Thompson away from the near post.
Thompson made 27 saves in his first lid lifter start.
William Karlsson, who had an assist on Jonathan Marchessault's second-period goal that tied the game at a goal apiece, scored the Golden Knights' lone power play goal out of five attempts at 7:17 of the third for the 3-2 lead, deflecting an Alex Pietrangelo pass from the slot.
The Kings answered again with the tying goal, this time at 12:58 of the third, as forward Arthur Kaliyev scored at the tail-end of a power play.
"I don’t think we did overreact," Stone said. "They had the first goal, but I thought we outplayed them in the first 10 minutes. We settled in, found a way to get it tied in the second, take the lead in the third. They tied it a couple of times, but I don’t think we really changed much. We just kept pushing."
Golden Knights teams of yesteryear would have struggled to score while putting up at least 50 shots. The dangerous chances wouldn't be there. Mostly, the shots Vegas hoped would find the goalie came from the blue line with aspirations for a rebound.
Vegas put up 51 shots on Quick, tied for the most in a regulation game in franchise history. Quick made big saves at key moments, but as the Golden Knights continued to pressure with their forecheck and create dangerous chances near the net, the dam eventually broke.
"Happy for the guys," said Cassidy, who improved to 7-1-0 all-time in season openers, the best record of any active coach. "I thought we showed a lot of resilience, kept pushing back. When something didn’t go our way, we came back the next shift and got our game back in a hurry."
The Kings seemed content taking it to overtime. With under a minute to go, Kings defenseman Sean Durzi held the puck behind the goal line to kill the clock. Durzi came out to the left side and tried a stretch pass to Trevor Moore, but Pietrangelo forced a turnover to spring Chandler Stephenson the other way.
Stephenson carried it through the right circle and dropped it off to Stone.
"I honestly didn’t know [Durzi] was coming out," Stone said. "I would’ve stood [by the net]. There’s no sense in letting him bait me. Petro made an incredible play. One of our best defensemen makes a great play, starts transition, and we get the goal."
Stone slowly looks to be rounding into form. His defensive presence was felt, making plays with his stick and forcing deflections in the neutral zone. That shot might have been another reminder that he is, in fact, 100%.
The onus isn't on Stone for the Golden Knights to succeed. Nights like this, however, show what can be with a healthy captain.
"I think for a coach, you’re always worried that when you don’t know your team that well, what will happen when things don’t go well?" Cassidy said. "It’s always a sign of good character in the room when the team is resilient."
Danny Webster can be reached at 702-259-8814 or [email protected]. Follow Danny on Twitter at twitter.com/DannyWebster21.
