Professional hockey players are no different than us. Although they are highly paid athletes, NHL’ers still admire and enjoy following the careers of others. For instance, VGK captain Mark Stone is an avid golfer and follows the PGA very closely. So, it’s no surprise as to which celebrity Stone admitted to being starstruck by.
Tiger Woods. I’ve idolized him since I was ten years old. He’s always been bigger than life for me. –Mark Stone to NHL.com
Vegas fans have heard countless stories about Stone’s passion for the links. Annually, he’s one of the Golden Knights’ best golfers, and to no surprise, he’s likely the most intense over 18 holes. Heck, in 2023 Stone took the Stanley Cup for a round of golf in Montana. The unrestricted free agent played 18 with fellow Stanley Cup champions Jonathan Marchessault, Brayden McNabb and Chandler Stepehenson. In the past, Stone declared Stephenson as one of the best golfers across the NHL. Stephenson didn’t disagree. The former Golden Knight went on to follow his words up with a hole in one in 2025.
Over the years, NHL.com has caught up with players to have a little fun and show off their personalities. This time, the league’s outlet asked the pros to share what they considered the most embarrassing moment of their careers. Several Golden Knights players made the cut and shared their so-called “most embarrassing” NHL moment.
The most embarrassing NHL moment, I scored an own goal in San Jose. The goalie wasn’t very happy with me. I think I tried to carry the puck in front of the net and it went off of my stick and into the net. So, that’s probably my most embarrassing moment. –Jack Eichel to NHL.com
Miscues happen to every player. As flawless as Jack Eichel looks on the ice, even the top-line center had a submission, and it was quite comical. Thankfully, Eichel’s blooper happened when he was a member of the Buffalo Sabres.
(Photo Credit: NHL.com)
Either in Mites, Juniors, NCAA or even in the NHL, putting the puck in your own goal occasionally happens. However, as proven by Eichel, a player (or the goalie) never forgets about a clumsy blunder. Nor do players forget about losing an edge or falling on the ice unprovoked.
Vegas’ starting goaltender Carter Hart had an embarrassing moment of his own that he shared with NHL.com. While in Philadelphia, Hart was heading back to the ice after an intermission and seemed to forget he was on skates.
The 2025-26 regular season was the most taxing the Golden Knights have ever gone through. The schedule itself was crammed into a tighter space than ever before because of the Olympics. Then the way the season actually went, with ups and downs, trades, injuries, the coach firing, off-ice storylines, and probably 10 other things I’m forgetting, it was exhausting to follow along, let alone play through.
Watching night in and night out, it was easy to see and feel. It was a grind from Opening Night all the way to Game 82. Then, the real season began, and everything changed for a team that looked beaten up physically and beaten down mentally.
The Golden Knights went from a team that lost more games than it won to the juggernaut many expected when the season began. Obviously, it’s a chicken-and-egg situation, but they started to have fun again. Once they got through the Utah series, you could feel a shift in the energy of the team, and there was genuine joy back in the locker room for the first time in a while.
Fast forward through the end of the postseason, albeit coming up two wins short, and just about every player said they’d remember the run fondly when they have a chance to look back.
The past two months was some of the most fun I’ve ever had. I would kill to have gotten two more wins with the guys but still it was so much fun and went through so many things. It’s a season I will remember for a long time but hopefully there are even more exciting ones coming. -Tomas Hertl
There’s a great power in enjoying the game, and the Golden Knights need to find a way to harness what happened in May and June and learn from what occurred from October to April.
The team that ripped through three rounds of the playoffs was loose. They enjoyed the gauntlet of the playoffs in a way they clearly did not during the 82-game regular season.
Now, as they head into the first 84-game season in franchise history, they must find ways to keep the fun alive. There are going to be massive swings of emotion between the first game on September 29th and the start of the playoffs nearly seven months later. To succeed and reach the summit they came so close to last year, fun has to be a constant theme.
The grind is inevitable; the misery that came with it in 25-26 doesn’t have to be. When they didn’t embrace enjoying the game, the Golden Knights looked as average as can be, but when they did, they were the best team in the league. That’s an important lesson that must stick with them as they embark on Season 10.
If every person in the world could have the attitude and mentality of Tomas Hertl, it would be a much better place to live.
The man who accidentally coined the phrase “fun must be always” lives that mantra every day because he knows the career of a hockey player doesn’t last forever.
I always like to laugh and have fun around the rink. I just try to enjoy every moment because time flies, especially the hockey, and before you know it, it’ll be over. -Tomas Hertl
Every once in a while, though, Hertl says his nonstop positive attitude gets him into trouble.
Sometimes it’s tough because you wake up and you are grumpy and everyone right away says ‘what happened, what is wrong?’ and I’m just like ‘I’m just tired, nothing happened.’ -Hertl
At the age of 32, Hertl played the most games of his career this last season. After many years of fighting through injuries, he was available for the entire preseason, played all 82 games in the regular season, and then played every playoff game, racking up 14 points in 22 games.
Even through the scoring drought that lasted more than two months, Hertl was always upbeat on the ice, in the locker room, and around his teammates. No matter what happens, he won’t let it affect him.
I was always the guy who brings the positive energy to the room. It’s just how I am and how I will be and I don’t want to change because I’m just myself. -Hertl
Well, it looks like the Golden Knights are planning another active summer. Since their Stanley Cup Final exit on June 14th, Vegas has been linked to every big name rumored to be on the move, as they have been since the 2018 offseason. Let’s be honest, it wouldn’t be a true summer without the Golden Knights management making some sort of headlining move. Already, the talking heads are expecting Vegas to be aggressive and make attempts for some of the big names in circling the rumor mill.
We already know that Vegas is unlikely to find any immediate impact players in the upcoming NHL Draft after bungling their postseason media requirements. Since VGK’s first pick is #95, they’ll be hoping to find a future depth player or two, but don’t expect anything close to NHL-ready prospects. So, they’ll go ahead and do it their way. The perennial aggressive VGK way.
“Main character” is probably another way of saying Vegas is highly interested in Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin and possibly even three-time Vezina trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck. It would take some creativity to acquire either star, but Vegas has made it work in the past, either by shipping out picks or divvying up some unwanted salary.
Heading into Game 4, four of Vegas’ top five goal scorers had yet to find the back of the net in the series. The concern level was starting to rise for Pavel Dorofeyev, Tomas Hertl, Mitch Marner, and Jack Eichel as the Golden Knights knew they couldn’t afford to fall into a 3-1 hole.
On the very first shift of the game, that changed for Dorofeyev. Eichel made an excellent play to get the puck into the slot for Ivan Barbashev, and he bumped it over to Dorofeyev to slot into the yawning cage.
At that moment, it appeared the tide was shifting. Dorofeyev had gotten off the schneid, Eichel helped create the goal, and on other lines, Marner and Hertl began looking more and more dangerous.
But, as the game wore on, it became increasingly clear that head coach John Tortorella wasn’t pleased with two of the team’s most important scorers. Dorofeyev carelessly gave a puck away in the defensive zone that led to Utah’s first goal, and Hertl looked more and more innocuous in his shifts with Brett Howden and Keegan Kolesar.
I just call them as I see them, as far as who’s playing well at certain times. (Dorofeyev and Hertl are) two very important people for us, but as the game’s being played, I’m just going to call it as I see it as far as who’s going to get that ice time. And we needed to, that’s a very important game for us in a Game 4 (while down 2-1). -Tortorella
Dorofeyev did not take a single shift in the final 13 minutes of regulation and played only two in the entire 3rd period. Hertl played just nine minutes at even strength, didn’t play at all in the last seven minutes of the 3rd period, and lost his spot on the power play. In the final 39 minutes of the 79-minute game, Dorofeyev and Hertl played a combined 6:03.
I’m not going to pick out one guy that was really good, and I’m not going to pick out one guy that was really bad. I thought we played as a team. -Tortorella
It ultimately worked in Game 4 as the Golden Knights came through with the all-important overtime goal to even the series. And, Dorofeyev responded to the limited ice time, coming through with what appeared to be the game-winner before it was ruled offside.
Moving forward, though, not only in the final games of this First Round, but the rest of the postseason if the Golden Knights are to continue, they simply cannot afford to have Dorofeyev and/or Hertl stapled to the bench. The two scored a combined 61 goals this season and raced each other for the team lead for most of the year until Pavel ran away with it.
Goal-scoring is extremely difficult in the playoffs, and the Golden Knights have a couple of guys who have proven they can do it. As long as they are healthy, they have to be allowed to work through the lull and come out the other side.
Game 4 proved Vegas can win without them, but the path forward likely depends on Dorofeyev and Hertl being part of the solution, not spectators to it.
It took just 1:12 into Game 4 for Vegas coach John Tortorella to look like a genius. Immediately, the coach’s preplanned top-six shakeup paid off and led to an early game offensive breakout. Although it took nearly four full periods, the recipe worked out for the Golden Knights. Last night, Vegas’ top player aptly led the way and four others scored their first goals of the postseason.
The Golden Knights needed a massive game out of Jack Eichel. It almost went the other way on him, but he battled through it and was VGKs best player.
3 points 6 shots on goal +3 29:22 on 35 shifts 1:51 on the kill
The guy did everything and VGK needed every ounce of it.
It was a sigh of relief for Vegas fans after regular season goal leader Pavel Dorofeyev snapped his playoff scoring drought 72 seconds into Game 4, placing immediate pressure on the Mammoth. However, the three-point performance from Jack Eichel ignited a fast start and a strong finish for Vegas. It was the star center’s clutch assists that sent the game into overtime and his team into an overjoyed locker room.
All in all, the Golden Knights received nine points from their top six. Oddly enough, Mark Stone was the only premier forward to come up empty. The coach’s line mixer triggered an early scoring spree and allowed Eichel to create the game-tying and game-winning goals in Game 4.
Eichel also led all forwards with 29:22 demanding minutes of ice time.
