Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo (7) skates with the team during training camp at City National Arena Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021.
Monday, Feb. 1, 2021 | 12:39 p.m.
The Golden Knights will reopen their training facility at City National Arena on Wednesday for practice, and the team expects to play its scheduled game Friday against the Los Angeles Kings at T-Mobile Arena.
Vegas has not been on the ice since Tuesday’s game against the Blues when all the coaches were in the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol. Defenseman Alex Pietrangelo and an unnamed taxi squad player joined them later in the week, and three games were postponed.
General manager Kelly McCrimmon said today the team has had four consecutive days of negative tests and expects to get back to normal later this week.
“Our expectation is that we will continue this week as scheduled with our games against Los Angeles on the weekend,” McCrimmon said in a virtual press conference.
Vegas missed Thursday’s game against the Blues due to postponement and will not play tonight or Wednesday against the Sharks.
The Blues game will be made up at 6 p.m. March 22 at home. The Sharks games will be made up Feb. 13 and Feb. 25 in San Jose. To make room in the schedule, a Feb. 26 game against the Ducks in Anaheim was moved to April 23.
Vegas’ issues with the virus started Tuesday afternoon when the team was made aware of a positive test by one of the coaches. Per NHL policy, the coach’s name was not disclosed. It forced the coaches into isolation, and McCrimmon and Silver Knights coaches were behind the bench for the 5-4 shootout loss.
McCrimmon said the Golden Knights followed league protocols and does not believe playing Tuesday’s game was the reason for the postponements that followed later in the week.
“I don’t feel that the team was at risk in any way,” McCrimmon said.
It is not known if Pietrangelo or the taxi squad player, who like the coach was not required to be named, will be on the ice when the team returns. When a player is placed on the league’s COVID protocol-related absences list, it could be for a variety of reasons, from a positive test to travel-related quarantine.
The reason Pietrangelo was placed on the list is unknown, and his availability for Friday’s game may not be known until later this week.
Silver Knights coaches remained under NHL rules and were not allowed to be with their team to reduce close contacts and remain eligible for NHL coaching duties, if needed.
Former Golden Knights defenseman Deryk Engelland, who retired last year, ran practices and coached Henderson’s preseason games last weekend.
The Silver Knights coaches have been released from the Golden Knights and are expected to return to Henderson’s practice Tuesday.
“They have now done what’s been asked of them in terms of the (COVID-19) protocol and have been cleared to return to the team,” McCrimmon said.
The Silver Knights played a preseason game Friday, but their game Saturday was called midgame when a San Jose Barracuda player returned a positive test. The Silver Knights did not practice Sunday or today and expect to play their inaugural regular season game on Saturday as scheduled.
In nonvirus-related news, McCrimmon confirmed that defenseman Brayden McNabb was placed on long-term injured reserve after he was hurt in Tuesday’s game against the Blues. He will miss at least 10 games, leaving Vegas short-handed on the blue line, especially if Pietrangelo is not cleared to play Friday.
