Arizona Coyotes: Michael Stone Wins Player Of The Game Belt After Injury

After the Arizona Coyotes 2-1 win against Philadelphia, defender Connor Murphy awarded Michael Stone the player of the game belt for his game-winning goal. Stone was injured late in the contest and did not return.

The Arizona Coyotes have shown some improvement on defense in their 6-2-1 run over the past few weeks.

While there are still a lot of strides to be made and one could argue that goaltending has been the biggest part of the team’s recent success, it’s hard to quibble with the growth of a few of the defenders.

Michael Stone has shown a huge growth to his offensive game in 2015-16. Averaging 22:59 of time on ice, the fifth-year veteran has achieved career high totals in goals, assists, and points this season after spending a good chunk of the early part of 2015-16 paired with Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

Stone has shown off a pretty powerful slapshot from the point that has managed to snag him 6 goals so far, along with a none too insignificant amount of goals later gifted to net front deflectors.

He’s also had a few memorable ones, like this one he rocketed past the Ducks’ John Gibson after one of the worst games of his career:

On Saturday night, Michael Stone again scored a big goal thanks to a nice screen by Max Domi in front of Steve Mason.

Stone beat the 2nd period buzzer as the puck hit the net with 0.5 seconds left. Afterwards, Philadelphia challenged the goal for goaltender interference on Max Domi but the call on the ice was upheld.

Unfortunately, that’s not where things ended for the Arizona Coyotes and Stone.

Late in the 3rd period, Stone was playing the puck near the boards when he got his leg tangled up with a member of the Philadelphia Flyers. He went down awkwardly and his leg appeared to twist on the way down. It was immediately apparent that he wouldn’t be finishing the game.

Stone was the second Arizona Coyotes player to go down on the night, with captain Shane Doan leaving the game under the concussion protocol after Radko Gudas boarded him earlier in the third.

Despite his absence, fellow defender Connor Murphy felt Stone deserved the recognition as player of the game.

"Who gets the belt?Find out! ⬇︎https://t.co/HhCiz1v0B8— Yotes (@ArizonaCoyotes) March 27, 2016"

Murphy’s faux hug and handshake with the absent Stone was a sobering reminder that it appears unlikely that he will see the ice again in 2015-16.

Stone’s goal won the game against a team desperate to make the playoffs, however, and in the short term it counts in the win column.

Next: Coyotes Sign Defensive Prospect Wood

Let’s just hope the long term of Stone, Doan, and the Arizona Coyotes isn’t too impacted by what transpired after.