Player of the Month for May
Presents Game On Magazine’ s
Player of the Month for May
Winnipeg’ s Mark Stone Leads Sens into Second Round
By Carter Brooks Photos by James Carey Lauder
For Winnipeg’ s Mark Stone, a team leader who helped guide the Ottawa Senators past the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, there is no such thing as too much hockey.
From an early age, hockey became a mainstay in the Stone household. Whether it was watching the game on television, playing on the street with his older brother Michael( now with the Calgary Flames), or taking in his father’ s weekly men’ s league games, the fastest game on earth was continually pumped through Stone’ s veins.
“ Michael and I competed against each other a ton in the backyard as kids – heck running up the stairs was a race for us,” he said.“ Just little things like that kind of prepared us. Way back in minor hockey people always said that we were better than some of the other kids, but for us I just think we were just that much more competitive than everyone else, and that’ s probably why we made it this far.”
That high exposure to hockey has definitely paid off.
After being drafted by the Western Hockey League’ s Brandon Wheat Kings, Stone enjoyed four extremely productive seasons in the WHL. Now with the Sens, Stone, 25, has upped the ante once again, finishing the past three seasons with more than 22 goals and 50 points – even once reaching 64 points( 2014-15).
“ I watched hockey every Saturday night,” he said.“ It was the Leafs at six here, and then you’ d catch either the Flames or the Canucks later at night. Saturday was one of the few days that your parents would let you stay up and catch both games, so for me it was all about getting in that NHL hockey. I went to the odd Moose game, and I actually watched( now teammate) Alex Burrows play a little bit, but it was all about the NHL for me.”
Stone – who recently found himself named to the Brandon Wheat Kings’ All-Time Team – is
an advocate for the importance of outdoor play. In a world where technology and‘ devices’ seem to draw most of the younger generation’ s attention, Stone emphasizes just how beneficial natural entertainment and the outdoors can be.“ We used to shoot pucks at each other for fun, well, OK, tennis balls – but I guess they turned into pucks when it was that cold outside,” he said.“ We had tons of guys come over and constantly play road hockey games. Those are the things that help you with your skills. When you know the puck or ball is bouncing around and you’ re batting stuff out of the air … those things are hugely beneficial for young kids to do. It just so happened that we did those things every day, either at home or at the outdoor rink.” Raised in Winnipeg’ s Westwood neighbourhood, Stone spent the better part of his childhood at Keith Bodley Arena. Even though returning to play the Jets at MTS Centre is fun for both Stone and his parents, it’ s the chance to visit his old stomping grounds that gets him most excited.“ For me Keith Bodley is the one rink that I will always remember for the rest of my life,” he said.
“ It’ s that one place that I enjoy going to the most. My dad still walks the dogs by there every day and talks to the same rink manager, Mike Horbow. He’ s still there, and my dad still talks to him. I think it’ s pretty cool for those guys to have seen my brother and I make it all the way up.” n
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