?LAS VEGAS — The Sharks didn’t need any reminders about what they were thankful for Thursday.
The last time they had looked upon the lights of the Strip, they were on a flight headed for San Jose after an Oct. 1 exhibition game against the Vegas Golden Knights. Less than an hour later, a gunman 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.
There but for the grace…
?”I have no doubt if that had been an off night, we would have been at the concert,” Sharks coach Pete DeBoer said Thursday. DeBoer is a country-music fan, as are several of his players. It was a country-music concert.
“You feel fortunate,” DeBoer said, “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.
The Sharks had traveled round trip that October day — in and out, no hotel stay — and organizational decision that had disappointed many of the players. There was a lot of talk about the fun they might have had with a free night in Vegas.
When they landed in San Jose, they learned how lucky they were.
“I got texts, saying, ‘Are you OK?”” forward Ryan Carpenter recalled. “It was friends watching from back home in Florida. They thought we’d stayed the night there.”
The logical next thought…
“What if we had spent the night there?” said defenseman Joakim Ryan. “Maybe some of the guys would have gone to that concert…. You’re just grateful that you’re still breathing. You realize how quickly it can all end.”
In the words of Chris Tierney, the Sharks returned to Las Vegas Wednesday with “heavy hearts”.
?On the bus from the airport to their hotel, which is attached to Mandalay Bay, the driver pointed to the windows ?from which the gunman had sprayed the crowd with more than 1,100 rounds of ammunition.
DeBoer,?Tierney and Joel ?Ward ?all used the same ?word to describe the bus ride: 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.”
?After checking into his room Wednesday night, Ward ?glanced out the window — and was jarred.
“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?. 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 had a similar experience in his room.
“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.
?This is a daily experience for the people of Las Vegas. The Golden Knights, and their surprising performance, has provided a diversion.
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?.
The Golden Knights won that game. They have won eight of nine at home and, at 13-6-1, they are in first place in the Pacific division.
?The Sharks are rivals. But they also are fans of what the Golden Knights have brought this city.
“I’ve dealt with some things in my past, and sports and hockey have always been my avenue to escape,” Ward said. “It’s isn’t 24 hours a day, but those one, two, three hours that you can just be free and get your mind off of things can be really powerful.”
Friday, the Sharks will play a hockey game with heavy hearts and deep gratitude.
“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,” Ryan said. “And then you just feel so bad for the people that aren’t around after that shooting.”
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