Golden Knights fail to step up in Stone's absence in Game 4

ANAHEIM -- On a more inexperienced team than the Vegas Golden Knights, losing a captain and the franchise's all-time leader in playoff scoring might be a bigger concern.

However, the Golden Knights have plenty of experience playing without Mark Stone, and they will need to lean on that for the rest of the Western Conference Second Round against the Anaheim Ducks.

“It’s always tough losing your captain,” Vegas forward Colton Sissons said. “We’re all just going to have to step up. That’s what it is. It’s what good teams do. Obviously, we miss ‘Stoney,’ but we have a lot of good leaders.”

Stone sustained an undisclosed injury in the first period of Vegas' 6-2 win in Game 3 on Friday and was not able to play in a 4-3 loss in Game 4 on Sunday.

His status for the rest of the series, which is tied 2-2, is unknown heading into Game 5 at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday (9:30 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN360, SN, TVAS).

Although the Golden Knights might have experience playing without Stone, there's no understating his impact on the team. They went 8-9-5 without him in the lineup this season compared to 31-17-12 when he played.

“Stoney is a big part of our team,” Vegas coach John Tortorella said. “We miss him, period, as far as his presence and as far as his play.”

The 33-year-old is Vegas' all-time leader in the playoffs with 79 points (39 goals, 40 assists) in 94 games, including seven points (three goals, four assists) in nine games this postseason.

As a result, Stone’s absence was noticeable in the Game 4 on Sunday, but as defenseman Brayden McNabb said after the loss, "you move on."

“It doesn’t matter what the score was, it could be 6-0, 1-0, 4-3, it’s the best-of-3 with home ice," he added. "We get a rest and will be ready for the next one.”

Considering the fact that the Golden Knights are a playoff-savvy team, having two of the last three games of the series at home should certainly give them an advantage against the Ducks, who have had 15 players make their NHL playoff debut this postseason.

Vegas is the complete opposite, with 12 Stanley Cup champions on its roster and seven players who have played at least 100 playoff games.

“I have zero worries about this team as far as how we’re going to go about the next few games here, wherever it goes to,” Tortorella said. “I have total trust.”

Vegas found itself in a similar situation against the Utah Mammoth in the first round, with the series tied 2-2 heading home for Game 5. The Golden Knights would win that game 5-4 in double overtime before closing out the series with a 5-1 victory on the road in Game 6.

They believe they can accomplish the same thing against the Ducks.  

“That’s what you want to do, you want to get better (as the series goes on) and we have,” McNabb said. “It’s a best-of-3 and we’re going home for Game 5, and that’s all we’re thinking about is Game 5, and we’re going to try and get a win there.”

If they are going to get that win, they are going to have to be better on the penalty kill. After going 11-for-11 in the first three games, Vegas went just 2-for-4 against Anaheim's power play in Game 4, including giving up the go-ahead goal to Alex Killorn at 17:58 that made it 3-2.

“I think we just have to be a little more disciplined,” McNabb said. “We took a few, they got a few. They were shooting the puck a bit more and they were getting some bounces around the net. We know what we have to do, and we have to keep going with how we were doing it and erase it and be ready for the next game.”

Offensively, Vegas should be encouraged that Tomas Hertl scored his first goal of the playoffs, while Pavel Dorofeyev scored his fifth and Brett Howden his seventh.

Hertl’s goal came with 1:04 left in the game and goalie Carter Hart pulled for an extra attacker. It made for a dramatic finish in the game.

“With goal-scorers, an empty-netter, 6-on-5, it doesn’t matter if the puck goes in the net. Hopefully it just releases him a little bit,” Tortorella said. “He had a great backhand chance tonight in front of the net, and I’m not sure where it went, but he’s been close for quite a while. So hopefully he bangs one in and hopefully that will help moving forward.”

Hertl, Dorofeyev and Howden are among the group that will have to carry the load the rest of the way, particularly if Stone is out for a significant length of time.

Another in that group is forward Mitch Marner, who had three assists in Game 4 and leads the League in playoff scoring with 16 points (six goals, 10 assists) in 10 games.

“Down the stretch we wanted to win a couple of more battles and execute a little bit more to create more offense, but we’ll take a look at it and see what we can improve upon,” Sissons said. “We did have some good looks. We always want more, and I don’t think we had a ton tonight, but we had enough good looks to score a couple of goals, and that’s the way it goes.”