SAN JOSE – The San Jose Sharks are still dealing with a handful of problems this preseason, not the least of which is a lower-body injury to No. 1 overall pick and top-line center Macklin Celebrini.
Celebrini was injured Tuesday night in the second period of the Sharks’ preseason game against the Utah Hockey Club at SAP Center.
While skating toward the Utah net on a partial breakaway, Celebrini got a shot away at the 13:45 mark before he appeared to lose an edge, causing him to slide hard into the end boards.
Celebrini got up, skated on his own toward the Sharks bench, and took one more shift shortly after on a Sharks power play. But he later went to the team’s dressing room for further evaluation.
Before the third period, the Sharks announced that Celebrini had a lower-body injury and would not return. First-year coach Ryan Warsofsky said after his team’s 3-1 loss to Utah that he didn’t have a health update on the 18-year-old wunderkind.
More information might become available on Wednesday when the Sharks return to practice.
“I can’t tell you how, when, or why guys get hurt,” Sharks goalie Mackenzie Blackwood said. “There’s certain things you can do to prevent soft tissue injuries, but just as far as bad luck stuff, I just think there’s really nothing you can do. Just have to hope that you stay lucky and dodge it.”
Losing Celebrini for a significant amount of time could hurt the Sharks’ chances of making strides this season after they went 19-54-9 last year. The Sharks felt they made upgrades throughout their roster, and do have improved center depth, but were confident Celebrini could be a difference maker as a rookie considering his compete level and well-rounded game.
“Of course, he’s a good player. When he leaves the game, it’s not easy,” Sharks winger Fabian Zetterlund said of Celebrini. “But other guys, we have to step up. You feel for him, it’s going to happen during the season a lot, and we just (have to) keep playing with those guys we have on the bench.”
The Sharks have two more preseason games, on Friday and Saturday this week, and it’s clear they have a lot of work to do before they open the regular season at home on Oct. 10 against the St. Louis Blues.
After Matt Benning scored at the 12:33 mark of the second period for a 1-0 Sharks lead, Utah responded with three unanswered goals.
Sean Durzi scored on the power play near the end of the second period, and Kailer Yamamoto added two even-strength goals in the third, with his second, a backdoor tap-in off a pass from Clayton Keller, giving Utah a 3-1 lead.
Still, the Sharks had a chance to score the first goal of the third period. Instead, they managed just one shot on goal in the first eight minutes and five shots for the entire period.
“We’re going to be here at some point this year,” Warsofsky said of his message at the second intermission. “We’re going to be in this moment – 1-1, just an OK period. We’re going to be in this moment, and we need to continue to push forward. We had a chance to win a hockey game.
“We’re going to get over that mindset of the give in our game, and we’re not there yet as a group. We had to be a little bit better in a lot of situations.”
The Sharks are now 1-3-0 in the preseason. The record doesn’t matter, but building good habits is important.
The Sharks want to avoid the disastrous starts they’ve had each of the last two seasons, including an 0-10-1 mark last year, and Warsofsky’s team has a lot of details to clean up in a week’s time.
Zetterlund said the Sharks need to do a better job of closing down on pucks, taking away time and space from opposing players. Warsofsky agreed, adding that the other issue is “we’ve got to break out pucks.”
“We’ve got to execute our breakouts,” he added. “The reads are sometimes fine. It’s our execution. It’s tape-to-tape passes. It’s being ready, demanding the puck, wanting the puck, all those things, and then that trickles into our D zone and not closing quickly.”
Celebrini, selected first overall by the Sharks during June’s NHL Draft, was playing in his second preseason game. He started Tuesday as the Sharks’ top-line center with William Eklund and Tyler Toffoli on the wings, and in 10:54 of ice time, won four of five faceoffs and was credited with two shots on net and two takeaways.
After Celebrini left the game, Will Smith, San Jose’s other top prospect, took over as the Sharks’ top-line center.
“I think got better as the game went on, for sure,” Warsofsky said of Smith.
On the bright side for the Sharks, Blackwood stopped 22 of 25 shots and was labeled the team’s best player by Warsofsky.
“Felt pretty good tonight. Maybe a couple little details, little baby mistakes I made,” Blackwood said, “but overall, I liked the base of my game, felt good tonight. A good sign.”
The Sharks will see another NHL-caliber lineup on Friday when they host the Ducks. By then, there should be a much clearer idea of Celebrini’s status.
“We’ve got to keep practicing our details,” Warsofsky said. “We’ve got to keep executing, keep playing within our system. It needs to be every single guy in that locker room doing it consistently. We do it at moments, good moments in the second period there. We were pushing after we scored the goal, had some momentum. We need to get back to that quicker, is the biggest thing.”
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