Golden Knights’ Mark Stone reflects on first hat trick of career in win vs. Predators

Vegas Golden Knights star forward Mark Stone has been playing in the NHL for over a decade now, but it was not until Monday that he recorded the first regular-season hat trick of his career when he found himself in the zone against the Nashville Predators at home.

After the 4-1 win by the Golden Knights over Nashville, Stone tried to play down his impressive feat.

“I was just fortunate enough to be in shooting spots tonight. I’d be a fool to pass up the ones that I [got],” Stone said (h/t NHL.com). “Those just come some days and other days they don’t, but we just need to keep finding ways to play those 60-minute games as a good team.”

Stone opened the scoring with a goal 15 minutes into the first period. He gave the Golden Knights a 2-0 lead with another goal early in the second frame. The veteran winger found the back of the net again just before the end of the period to re-establish a two-goal lead for the Golden Knights after Nashville’s Luke Evangelista lit the lamp for the Preds’ first score.

Stone continues to be among the top performers for the Golden Knights, who improved to 25-14-5 with that win against the Predators.

So far in the 2023-24 NHL regular season, Stone is tied with Jack Eichel for the most points on the team with 44. He also leads Vegas with 29 assists. While he mostly relishes setting his teammates up for scoring opportunities, Stone, as further evidenced by his scoring outburst versus the Predators, is also a dangerous goal-getter. In fact, he is second on the team with a 16.0 shooting percentage (22nd overall in the league among players with at least 90 shots on goal).