Mark Stone's wife Hayley Thompson was seen taking the picture with a Knights fan during game four between the Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars. The jersey in question was obviously intended to make fun of the captain's situation, as he's been on LTIR late in the year each of the past three seasons. Stone's number of course, is 61. Stone has been in and out of LTIR over the past few seasons, frequently missing a significant amount of games in the second half of the regular season before returning to be a hero in the playoffs. <q>Mark Stone's wife Hayley posed with a fan wearing an LTIR #61 jersey 👀🤣 (via @German_Diver)</q> <div align='center'><blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'><a href='https://twitter.com/BR_OpenIce/status/1785328461453639752'> </a></blockquote></div> In fact, this has been the case in each of the last three seasons. Stone has gone on LTIR in April at some point in each of the past three campaigns, each time returning for game one of the playoffs. <q>Mark Stone's transactions the last 3 seasons: #VegasBorn</q> <div align='center'><blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'><a href='https://twitter.com/CapFriendly/status/1782469820417486871'> </a></blockquote></div> This year, his return was particularly dramatic as he scored just minutes into game one against the Dallas Stars, leaving his mark on the series early. Fan reaction to the goal was more or less what you would expect given the dubious circumstances surrounding Stone's health in recent seasons. <q>MARK STONE OPENING GOAL FOR VEGAS. You couldn't script this better</q> <div align='center'><blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'><a href='https://twitter.com/JesseBlake/status/1782589530907840919'> </a></blockquote></div> <q>Mark Stone has scored 2 minutes into his return 🤣 guess he's fine</q> <div align='center'><blockquote class='twitter-tweet' data-lang='en'><a href='https://twitter.com/ProducerDrew_/status/1782589504466895164'> </a></blockquote></div> At this point, it seems as though the Vegas Golden Knights are actively manipulating the rules when it comes to LTIR in order to build the strongest team possible for the playoffs. While they certainly haven't broken any rules, the league may very well be forced to address this issue given fan sentiment about it. Perhaps we could see a rules change this summer.