Mark Stone was sitting on the bench, his helmet in his hand while he cleaned his visor, when he heard his name on the public address system.
“Finally,” Stone said clear enough for all the lip readers in the house to see.
Finally is right. It was his first goal in two months and two days, a slump that was into its 20th game and had lasted approximately 450 shifts.
Hearing “scored by” connected to his handle had to be sweet music for Stone.
A few minutes later, Jean-Gabriel Pageau also scored the Senators’ second consecutive breakaway goal to give the home team a 2-0 lead.