VANCOUVER — Macklin Celebrini isn’t the only homecoming today.
The San Jose Sharks are back in action, after a three-day Christmas break, hoping to put the memory of the 7-2 thrashing at the hands of the Vegas Golden Knights on Dec. 23 behind them.
They’ll do it in Vancouver, both Celebrini and Vincent Iorio’s hometown.
Last year, I covered Celebrini’s homecoming debut plenty, even going to North Shore Winter Club, where Celebrini grew up playing, taking pictures and chatting with his youth coaches:
Hello from Vancouver!
One of my favorite pieces from last year, I visited North Shore Winter Club in North Vancouver, where Macklin Celebrini grew up playing, and spoke with a bunch of his youth coaches.
They were all thrilled to talk about Mack: https://t.co/jqqp6QysZq
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) December 27, 2025
Iorio didn’t grow up in North Vancouver, he was more east side Vancouver, but he got to know the Celebrinis, especially older brother Aiden Celebrini well.
Iorio chatted with San Jose Hockey Now about growing up a Canucks fan, being at the USA-Canada men’s ice hockey gold medal game at the 2010 Olympics, and more. It sounds like he has 40-plus people coming today.
Vincent Iorio, on tonight’s game in his hometown and how many people are coming…
I’m pretty fired up. 20 tickets I’ve got. And then I’m probably expecting another 20. I don’t know, actually, to be honest. There could be way more that just haven’t texted me.
On whether this was a dream of his as a kid…
Oh yeah, for sure. I had season tickets. Section 108 – it was either 108 or 119. I was looking up today at the stands because I remember I was always on the left side of the blue line. We had season tickets when I was young, and I used to come to games all the time.
On his favorite defender when he was young…
I loved Alex Edler. We got to meet him a couple times on the ice, just skating with my skating coach back here. Alex Burrows was a big one for me. I loved Alex Burrows. I was 14 growing up. So that was the reason why I wore 14. I remember my first game I watched, he had a hat trick. And I was like, “Oh, this guy’s really cool.” When he slayed the dragon against Chicago in the Western finals, that was pretty cool too.
On the year Vancouver made it to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2011…
Cup year was really cool. I remember my mom was at game seven. Dad and I were in Winnipeg for a spring hockey tournament. Looking back at it, I wish I went to game seven. Maybe I would have had better luck. But it was just a lot of really cool memories here with my dad, grandparents, mom, sister, cousins, just coming to the games and going to Triple O’s as a kid, like the burger joint, White Spot and Triple O’s and the ice cream and popcorn and churros. Crazy.
On wearing jerseys to games…
Yeah, I would wear jerseys. Edler, Burrows, Sedins, Luongo. I had a Luongo jersey from the Olympics. That was also really cool, because that was here too. So Luongo is a big part of my life as well. Just the whole team, Kesler, Jannik Hansen, Mason Raymond, all these guys, Rick Rypien too, a lot of Canucks guys who I grew up watching.
On if it’s still cool to see the Sedins around…
Oh yeah, for sure. I’ve heard a ton of stories of how fit they are still and how often they run the Grouse Grind and stuff. I haven’t met them, but they’re first class people. They’re royalty in Vancouver, and they’ve done so much for this city.
On his Grouse Grind time…
I don’t even know. I haven’t done the Grind in a while. You have to ask Mack what his is. He goes. He does the Grind all the time. I gotta ask him. I know when Aiden (Celebrini) – because I skated with Aiden yesterday – he did the Grind. Because the Canucks do the Grind for camp all the time. I think it was for rookie camp he did it and he just crushed everybody, he crushed all the other rookies. Yeah, he’s good at that.
On his memory of the Olympics in Vancouver…
I was actually at the gold medal game. That was really cool. I was a little bit younger, so I don’t remember too much of the Olympics, but I remember we were at the very top row. It was 300 level or 200 level. So that was really cool. It was just a blur, honestly. I remember watching, obviously being there, watching the game, with my grandparents, and the popcorn stuff, and as soon as they scored, it was deafening. It was so cool. And then obviously the streets, the whole Olympics was just bumping.
On Macklin Celebrini potentially going to the 2026 Olympics…
I haven’t talked to him about it. I might take him to the Olympic torch. We might go walk there. So I don’t know. He’s been locked in, he’s been really, really prepared, and I’m hoping to hear really good news. He’s not going to hear anything until, I don’t know when. So, yeah, I’m really excited for him.
San Jose Sharks (17-17-3)
Yaroslav Askarov will start.
Iorio will come in for Nick Leddy, while Adam Gaudette will slot in for Ethan Cardwell, who was sent back to the San Jose Barracuda.
These are how lines looked at morning skate:
Eklund-Celebrini-Chernyshov
Graf-Wennberg-Toffoli
Skinner-Dellandrea-Gaudette
Goodrow-Ostapchuk-Reaves
Ferraro-Mukhamadullin
Orlov-Klingberg
Dickinson-Iorio
Askarov
“I thought that line gave us a little push there in the third [at Vegas] and then it gave us a different look. Gives us some pace,” head coach Ryan Warsofsky said about promoting William Eklund to the top line.
Power play groups looked similar.
PP1: Klingberg-Eklund-Celebrini-Toffoli-Wennberg
PP2: Orlov-Skinner-Gaudette-Graf-Chernyshov
Vancouver Canucks (15-18-3)
Here’s how the Canucks will line up, per NHL.com:
Evander Kane — Elias Pettersson — Kiefer Sherwood
Jake DeBrusk — Marco Rossi — Brock Boeser
Drew O’Connor — David Kampf — Conor Garland
Liam Ohgren — Max Sasson — Linus Karlsson
Marcus Pettersson — Filip Hronek
Zeev Buium — Tyler Myers
Elias Pettersson — Tom Willander
Thatcher Demko
Where To Watch
Puck drop between the San Jose Sharks and Vancouver Canucks is at 7 PM PT at Rogers Arena. Watch it live on NBC Sports California. Listen to it on the Sharks Audio Network.