Kirby Dach criticized for ‘inexcusable effort’ as Macklin Celebrini leads Sharks past Canadiens 7-5

Macklin Celebrini gave the Montreal Canadiens a true hockey lesson Wednesday night, recording 4 points in the Sharks’ chaotic 7-5 victory.

The trip out West is starting poorly for Martin St-Louis’ group. Let’s be honest – losing to the San Jose Sharks stings, especially when you allow seven goals.

There’s no other way to put it: the defense looked like a sieve against the young guns from California.

Yet Oliver Kapanen had gotten things started well in the first period. But the response from the home team didn’t take long. Collin Graf took advantage of Celebrini’s vision to tie the game before the end of the opening frame.

The Montreal Canadiens’ execution simply wasn’t there.

Phillip Danault tried to restore momentum for the Canadiens in the second period.

His goal, tipped on a shot from Mike Matheson, seemed to stabilize things. Unfortunately, Michael Misa capitalized on a scramble in front of the net to bring everyone back to square one.

Macklin Celebrini takes over as Kirby Dach faces criticism in Canadiens loss

The nightmare truly began late in the second period. In just 25 seconds, the Sharks scored twice.

Celebrini toyed with the defensive coverage before Kiefer Sherwood took advantage of Kirby Dach’s softness.

Dach also drew criticism on a sequence, with observers pointing to his lack of urgency on the backcheck that allowed the Sharks to capitalize.

Some players posted a -3 differential during those painful sequences.

The Canadiens showed some character in the third. Ivan Demidov finally snapped his power-play goal drought.

Moments later, Alex Newhook erupted with two quick goals to tie the game at 5-5.

The catastrophe came late in the game with a foolish penalty for having too many men on the ice.

Kiefer Sherwood took advantage to seal the outcome of the game.

Adam Gaudette completed the scoring with an empty-net goal, leaving the Habs with a bitter loss before heading to Anaheim.

In addition, the defensive brigade had their hands full all night. Kaiden Guhle did everything he could to protect his goaltender, but the impact was inevitable in the heat of the action.

The goalie ended up on the ice after a collision that looked like a car crash – it was that violent.

Fortunately, the worst was avoided for the netminder. Let’s be honest – losing a starter on such a needless collision would have been the worst-case scenario for the rest of the season.