Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

holidays:

Golden Knights’ Pietrangelo, family not taking holiday time together lightly

Golden Knights Down Flames, 3-2

Steve Marcus

Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo (7) clears the puck during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Calgary Flames at T-Mobile Arena Sunday, Dec. 5, 2021.

If you make a visit to the Pietrangelo house any time soon, you’re likely to be greeted by the “hugging train.”

The conductor is 4-year-old Evelyn, charging full speed and loving her siblings, mom and dad.

“It’s just free hugs for everybody who walks around the house,” said Golden Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo.

Considering the month the Pietrangelos have dealt with heading into the holiday season, they’ll gladly take all the hugs at all times of the day.

Evelyn, one of Alex and wife Jayne’s four kids, was taken to Sunrise Children’s Hospital late November for what started as the flu. Eventually, the flu that originated near Thanksgiving turned into encephalitis — a condition where the brain becomes swollen — and caused her to lose her motor functions.

She couldn’t talk. She had a feeding tube in her because she couldn’t eat.

Evelyn was in the hospital for 48 hours after she started developing symptoms. Children get sick all the time. In Alex’s mind, this was initially par for the course.

That’s when everything snowballed.

The ensuing week turned into daily drives from Summerlin to Sunrise Children’s Hospital. From City National Arena, it’s approximately a 25-minute drive.

On top of taking care of their other children — Oliver (4), Theodore (4) and Julia Grace (2) — driving across town to check on Evelyn every day was another taxing endeavor when you're taking care of three other children aged 4 and younger.

“It’s pretty scary when your baby is there and she’s asleep there for the first little while, and you don’t know what to expect,” Pietrangelo said. “You’re trying to stay positive.”

Following the Golden Knights’ home game against Vancouver on Nov. 26, the team announced Pietrangelo would miss time due to personal reasons. On Dec. 7, Pietrangelo stepped away indefinitely due to an illness in the family.

The defenseman said he would have sat out the entire season if he needed to, and the Golden Knights were prepared to give him all the time he needed.

Alex and Jayne would get up before sunrise, drive to the hospital for a couple of hours and wait for Evelyn to fall asleep. Alex then drove to City National Arena for that time to train on his own.

“You never want to see anybody go through that, let alone your kid. So it’s definitely something that, it hits hard having your own kid now,” said forward Chandler Stephenson, a first-time father this year. “Seeing and hearing what he went through as a dad, I mean, you’re kind of hopeless and all you want to do is make them feel better.”

He returned Dec. 17 against the New York Islanders following a 10-game absence.

After the first treatment, Evelyn stayed in the hospital for about 10 days. Doctors removed the feeding tube due to a malfunction, but Alex and Jayne wanted to keep it removed to see how she developed on her own.

“We got her home, and something clicked,” he said. “All of a sudden, she was like a different kid.”

Evelyn started walking on her own and is slowly getting back to being a normal 4-year-old, playing with her siblings and her toys.

But the road back is still a long one. Evelyn still has many therapy sessions to go, but she’s been receptive to it, Pietrangelo said. There are the little nuances of a 4-year-old that she can’t do right now that, Pietrangelo added, “you take for granted.”

“She was a little chatterbox before,” he said. “Trying to go bed at night, she’s still talking, and telling her to be quiet so you can go to bed. It’s like we’d do anything to have her start talking and have those conversations with her. Everything you took for granted before, it’s not that easy anymore. It does make you appreciate the small things.”

Pietrangelo said if not for Jayne, whom he calls “Superwoman,” he wouldn’t have been able to return to game action as soon as he did. Her ability to take Evelyn to therapy, while juggling three other kids, is just one facet of how she’s kept the family together, Alex said.

The Pietrangelos returned to St. Louis to celebrate Christmas, where Jayne’s family is from and where Alex played the first 12 years of his career. They were surrounded by cousins, aunts and uncles in an attempt to get away from everything that happened.

“If I didn’t have [Jayne] there … she’s just a rock for us,” Pietrangelo said. “It was tough on us, but in a sense, it brings you closer together.”

Danny Webster can be reached at 702-259-8814 or [email protected]. Follow Danny on Twitter at twitter.com/DannyWebster21.