Vegas played a game without its coaching staff, had three games postponed and its facilities closed the past week under the NHL COVID-19 protocol. McCrimmon said three coaches, one player and one taxi-squad player were unavailable.
"We're pleased to say that those people are all healthy and doing well," McCrimmon said. "We've now had four days of all negative tests, which is encouraging, and our expectation is that we will continue this week as scheduled."
The NHL announced the rescheduling of the postponed games Monday. The Golden Knights will play the St. Louis Blues at T-Mobile Arena on March 22 and the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center on Feb. 13 and 25.
"The ability to be adaptable and not get hung up on some of things and just to take it as it comes, I think, is going to be important," McCrimmon said.
McCrimmon coached the Golden Knights, assisted by the staff of Henderson of the American Hockey League, in a 5-4 shootout loss to the Blues at T-Mobile Arena on Jan. 26 after the Vegas staff could not coach under the protocol. He said after the game a coach tested positive.
"I don't feel that the team was at risk in any way, and those decisions were made in conjunction with the advice of the medical experts, both from our own organization and the National Hockey League," McCrimmon said.
The Vegas facilities were closed Wednesday.
The Golden Knights were supposed to play the Blues at T-Mobile Arena again Thursday, but the NHL announced the game was postponed and their facilities would remain closed after a player and another member of the staff entered the COVID-19 protocol.
Defenseman Alex Pietrangelo was listed as unavailable that day. The NHL is releasing the names of players who are unavailable under the protocol but not the precise reason. It is not releasing the names of coaches or taxi-squad players.
The NHL announced Friday that Vegas' games against San Jose scheduled for Monday and Wednesday were postponed and its facilities would remain closed. It also announced four members of the Golden Knights, including three coaches, were being isolated.
Pietrangelo remained listed as unavailable through Sunday.
McCrimmon said the NHL uses the same company to test each of the 24 United States-based teams each day, and it receives the results the same day at the same time the teams do.
"The NHL is fully apprised of everything that's going on with all teams with respect to the status of the COVID testing," McCrimmon aid. "When these situations happen, you put yourself in their hands. They dictate what those next steps are going to look like. I think it's important that people understand that."
Asked about the timelines for the coaches and players to return, McCrimmon said: "There's a process that you go through to come out of protocol, which we anticipate will happen without further incident based on everyone being in a good place. Exactly the dates, we don't have that yet."
