Celebrini leaning on Olympic lessons in Sharks playoff push
So rather than Celebrini playing at Agganis Arena against the University of Vermont in the opening round of the Hockey East Tournament, he was set to watch his brother Aiden take the ice from the stands. Instead, the 19-year-old center will be playing the following night for the Sharks against the Boston Bruins, with another tournament on his mind: the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
“It’s the last little stretch,” he said Wednesday. “It’s exciting. We’re still in it. We had a pretty good homestand there — obviously a tough one last night [in a 6-3 loss at the Buffalo Sabres] — but I think we’ve just got to get back on track.”
They can start against the Bruins, owners of 13 straight wins at home — “We definitely want to snap that streak,” forward Will Smith said — at TD Garden on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSCA, NESN, SNP, SNE), in a matchup of teams fighting to finish the season with a spot in the playoffs.
The Sharks, who had the fewest points in the NHL last season (52), have 66 this season, one point behind the Seattle Kraken for the second wild card in the Western Conference, with the Kraken tied in points with the Los Angeles Kings. The Sharks (30-26-6) have a game in hand on the Kraken (29-25-9) and two on the Kings (26-23-15).
It’s not necessarily where they were expected to be.
“If someone would have told you in October at the start of training camp we’d be one point out of a playoff spot, March [11], they probably wouldn’t believe it,” San Jose coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “We’re going to enjoy this grind and this journey that we’re on together.
“We’ve got to do it as a team. It can’t just be four or five guys. We’re going to do it together and enjoy it. Sometimes you get really good experiences through failure. We kind of learned that lesson a little bit last night with a really good Buffalo team. We’ve got to turn the page and move on. It’s a new day, the sun came up, we’ve got to get back to work and get ready for a good Boston team.”
But while the Sharks know that they’re a team, that they have to do it as a team, it all starts with Celebrini, who has hit 90 points (33 goals, 57 assists) in 62 games this season, double the points of Smith (45 points; 19 goals, 26 assists in 49 games), who is second on San Jose.
