Golden Knights’ Mark Stone feels safe around teammates on ice

Mark Stone said he hasn’t felt uneasy or unsafe since he and his teammates returned to City National Arena this week.

The Golden Knights’ star right wing is comfortable with the twice weekly COVID-19 testing, daily temperature checks and other health guidelines required for players to participate in small group workouts in Phase Two of the NHL’s return-to-play protocol. If that’s what it takes for Stone to hit the ice again, so be it.

He wants the chance to finish what the Knights started this season.

“I can’t speak for everybody, but, speaking for myself, I’m excited,” said Stone, who missed the Knights’ last six games with a lower-body injury but deemed himself “100 percent” on a Zoom call Thursday. “I want to compete for the Stanley Cup. I want to play hockey. I want to get back to work and, ultimately, I want to entertain people.”

Stone, the Knights’ second-leading scorer with 63 points, has skated twice this week with Deryk Engelland, Marc-Andre Fleury, Nick Holden, Max Pacioretty and Paul Stastny. He said the workouts have been basic, with players focused on getting their feel for the game again. They don’t want to go too hard after not skating for almost three months and risk pulling a groin or injuring a hip.

Instead, they will increase the difficulty gradually before mandatory training camps begin. The NHL announced Thursday they would start July 10 if the league and players association agree to health and safety guidelines, along with an overall deal on resuming play.

The first few workouts haven’t just been about Stone getting his skating legs back, though. He said it’s been great just to be around the team again.

“It’s the same thing in the summers,” Stone said. “You’re so excited to get a little bit of time off, and after a month, you just want to get back with your friends and just play some hockey. It was just exciting to be back, share a couple laughs with the guys.”

Stone hopes to do a lot more than that if the season resumes. He said he thinks the Knights started playing their best hockey around the trade deadline. They went 8-2 after acquiring defenseman Alec Martinez on Feb. 19 and outscored opponents 35-26.

He wants the team to find that intensity again for its round-robin games against the St. Louis Blues, Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars for seeding. If the Knights are up to speed in those games, Stone said they will be tough to beat, even if they play in empty arenas.

“I’ve played competitive games since I was 5, 6 years old in front of no people,” Stone said. “We’re hockey players. We’re built to play. We’re built to try and win. No matter what the surroundings, or what the setting is, I think that same intensity is going to be there.”

Contact Ben Gotz at bgotz@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BenSGotz on Twitter.