Good Knight: Chandler Stephenson flourishing in NHL playoffs with Vegas

Chandler Stephenson has got a pretty good shooting percentage going in the NHL playoffs.

The Saskatoon-born Vegas Golden Knights centre scored four goals on eight shots over five games as Vegas dispatched the Winnipeg Jets.

“It’s just going my way, I guess,” the 29-year-old Regina Pats alumnus said Friday during a conversation with The Green Zone’s Drew Remenda. “It was the opposite toward the end of the regular season; it felt like I had 80 shots and zero goals.

“They’re just going in right now.”

Stephenson scored 16 times during the 2022-23 regular season, the second-highest total of his eight-year NHL career. He finished with a career-high 65 points in 81 regular-season games before erupting for eight points against the Jets.

Stephenson, who recorded 73 goals and 195 points over four WHL seasons with the Pats, was selected in the third round (77th overall) of the 2012 NHL draft by the Washington Capitals.

He spent four-plus seasons with the Caps – winning a Stanley Cup with them in 2018 when they beat Vegas – before being dealt to the Golden Knights in December of 2019.

This season, he has another good chance to win a title; Vegas went into the playoffs as the top seed in the Western Conference.

A veteran-laden lineup could help the Knights go a long way in the post-season.

“I remember losing Game 1 (against Winnipeg) and everyone was kind of like, ‘Oh, this sucks. It’s over,’ ” Stephenson said. “Then you’ve got guys like (Jonathan) Quick, Phil (Kessel) and (Alec) Martinez who have been there and it’s like, ‘It’s one game.’

“It’s a roller coaster of emotions in the playoffs. Luckily we went on to win four straight, but that could have been we win one, they win one, we win one, they win one (and) we win two to win the series.

“That’s the ebbs and flows of playoffs. You can’t win one game and be like, ‘Oh, great! We’re back in the series!’ or ‘We won the series!’ It’s on to the next game and see how that game goes.”

One of the Golden Knights’ key veterans is Mark Stone, who returned to the lineup at the start of the playoffs after having back surgery.

He’s playing on a line with Stephenson, who has been impressed with – but not surprised by – Stone’s effort and fiery leadership after a lengthy layoff.

“It’s the playoffs; everybody wants to be playing in the playoffs,” Stephenson said. “That was the vision he had. Being out and having to get a second operation, it was, ‘I want to be back for playoffs,’ so everybody worked hard to get him back …

“Everything to this point for him personally is what he has wanted and what he has envisioned. To see him thriving right now is exactly what this team needs and you can just see its snowball effect from him leading the way and taking charge as captain.”

By dispatching the Jets on Thursday, the Golden Knights became the first team this NHL post-season to advance to the second round. That’s fine by Stephenson and his teammates.

“It’s nice to be in the position that we are, to have some time to rest and relax and see some other teams going a little longer,” he said. “Every game, it adds a little more bruises, a little more bumps and things like that.

“The quicker you can get done with a series, the quicker you can recover, regroup and worry about the next round.”