Emotional return to Las Vegas
Sharks flew out of Las Vegas less than an hour before Oct. 1 massacre
LAS VEGAS » Sharks coach Pete DeBoer didn’t need any reminders of what he was grateful for this Thanksgiving as the Sharks returned to Las Vegas Wednesday for the first time since their final preseason game on Oct. 1.
As a country music fan, like several of his players, the Sharks coach couldn’t help but to consider what might have happened had the timing of his team’s game at T-Mobile Arena that night been slightly different.
For tunately, with a practice scheduled for Oct. 2, DeBoer and his team were on a plane flying back to San Jose when Stephen Paddock opened fire on thousands of concert goers from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, killing 58 people in the largest mass shooting in modern American history.
“I have no doubt that had that been an off night, we would have been at the concert,” the Sharks coach said on the eve of Friday’s matinee with the Vegas Golden Knights.
“You feel fortunate, but you don’t want to feel too fortunate because there were a lot of people who weren’t fortunate. It’s really a lot of mixed emotions.”
Ryan Carpenter first learned about the shooting when the Sharks landed in San Jose shortly after 10p.m. that night. His phone start buzzing with text messages from friends.
“I got texts, saying, ‘Are you okay?’” Carpenter recalled. “It was friends watching from back home in Florida. They thought that we’d stayed the night there.”
The Sharks had traveled round trip that day — no night in Vegas — an organizational decision that had disappointed most of the players on the trip, who were picturing all the fun that could have been had on their first NHL roadie to Sin City.
“Before the game, we were all talking like, can you imagine if we could have stayed? It would have been so cool if we’d gotten a day off,” said Joel Ward.
But soon after the Sharks landed in San Jose, defenseman Joakim Ryan started envisioning a different scene.
“You obviously start thinking, what if we had spent the night there? Maybe some of the guys would have gone to that concert,” he said. “You’re just grateful that you’re still breathing. You realize how quickly it can all end.”
As the Sharks rode the bus in to their hotel, which is attached to Mandalay Bay, the bus driver pointed to the windows that Paddock was shooting from as he sprayed the crowd withmore than 1,100 rounds of ammunition.
DeBoer, Ward and Chris Tierney used the same word to describe the ride in from the airport: “eerie.”
“Every time we come here now it’s going to be in the back of your mind,” Tierney said. “We’re all going to remember what happened and have heavy hearts. It’s just terrible. We’ve got to remember the victims and try to play around it.”
Ward struggled to clear the tragedy from his mind after he settled into his hotel room. He received a harsh reminder of what had happened on the night of Oct. 1 every time he looked out his window.
“At first I was like, there’s the Strip. But then I’m like, oh my God, there’s the big Mandalay Bay sign and there’s the site across the street,” Ward said. “I did close the drapes, actually. I just got on my laptop. I had to get away from thinking about it — I needed a distraction.”
Ryan also fixated on the tragedy after the Sharks checked into their hotel.
“I was looking out the window wondering what room that guy was in, I could see the concert venue that he shot up,” Ryan said.
“You start thinking about what you’re thankful for: your family, your friends, the people you love, what I get to do for a living right now — we’re all living out our dreams playing professional hockey. And then you just feel so bad for the people that aren’t around after that shooting.”
As the Sharks prepare for Friday’s game, they’re experiencing some of the emotions that the people of Las Vegas have been dealing with over the last seven-plus weeks, which is why the timing of the Golden Knights arrival to the NHL couldn’t have been better.
The expansion team played its first- ever regular season game at T-Mobile Arena nine days after the shooting, honoring the shooting’s survivors and its first responders with an emotional pregame ceremony that galvanized the city and hockey fans across the continent.
So far, the Golden Knights (13-6-1) are providing Las Vegas with a pleasant diverson, grabbing hold of first place in the Pacific Division after 20 games with the help of an 8-1 record on home ice.