The Golden Knights are in a tough spot with top wingers out long-term

You wouldn’t think there would be good news about losing a lethal goalscorer and the best two-way forward on the planet to injury after just a couple of games. But maybe there is some silver lining for the Vegas Golden Knights.

The first bit of good news is that the Mark Stone injury isn’t likely to be as bad as it seemed. Coach Peter DeBoer said the other day that Stone won’t need surgery, but that he is “between day-to-day and week-to-week” in terms of a return. Obviously, that’s not ideal, nor is the strength of Vegas’s schedule through mid-November, as it features teams like the New York Islanders, Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars, Toronto Leafs, Minnesota Wild and Carolina Hurricanes, among other tough opponents, as well as a stretch of six out of seven games on the road.

But the second piece of good news is that the rest of the division isn’t very good and therefore even if they lose a bit of ground over the next few weeks, it shouldn’t be that difficult for a Golden Knights roster running at 90 percent capacity to keep pace.