The Vegas Golden Knights were forced to scramble and find a new hotel when the one they were staying in for their game against the San Jose Sharks on Friday was suddenly closed. This happened as a result of Fairmont Hotel filing for bankruptcy, as the Las Vegas Review Journal reported.
The players were notified through director of team services Rick Braunstein, who told players to pack their bags and bring their belongings when the team left for the game. The team had already eaten a pregame meal and taken an afternoon nap prior to this announcement.
"It was just a surreal experience," coach Pete DeBoer said, per the Review-Journal. "Hopefully this is the end of the COVID year, but it was almost the topping on top of the cake for what the past year has been, for everybody in the world. Just another thing thrown at you, another thing to deal with.
"Not that I'm putting it in the same breath as dealing with COVID, but it was just one of those things that we got thrown at us. We dealt with it."
The Golden Knights wound up beating the Sharks even with the odd occurrence in a 5-4 overtime victory. Vegas ended up checking in to a new hotel after the win.
"I think it was pretty seamless," defenseman Nick Holden said. "[Braunstein] did a great job letting everybody get their preparation, pregame nap, all that stuff in. We just had to pack our bags like we were going to be leaving. Behind the scenes, everything was taken care of so we could just focus on the game last night and on today."
