MILAN — What’s it like being on the ice when Nathan MacKinnon joins Connor McDavid and Macklin Celebrini on the same line?
Cale Makar pondered the question and broke into a grin.
“I got to remember that I got to play a little defense, I guess,” quipped Team Canada’s stud defenseman.
He was kidding, of course. But like anyone else in the world, despite his own superstar status, he marvels at what those three look like together.
“It’s so exciting,” Makar said. “Obviously all those guys can move around really well. The thing when they’re out there together, they’re still getting to the net and penetrating to the middle. It’s not like they’re just playing on the outside. It’s cool for a line like that. It’s fun to watch, especially on the ice and on the bench. Just hope to hopefully be part of that sometimes.”
Sidney Crosby’s eyes lit up when asked the same question.
“It’s fast. The speed, it’s amazing to see them together,” said the Canadian captain. “Obviously Mack’s seeing the ice really well. He’s creating a lot himself. It’s fun. Seeing those guys in practice or in games, up close, seeing what they do and the speed that they do it at. Knowing everyone on the ice solely wants to find a way to shut them down or limit their chances, they work so hard. It’s fun to see them do their thing for sure.”
So if anyone is keeping score at home, that’s the best defenseman in the world and a top-five all-time NHL player running out of superlatives for the Mach3 line (stick tap to Vancouver Canucks fan @ejmichele on X for coming up with that nickname).
Head coach Jon Cooper actually went back to his original Day 1 lineup to start the game, meaning MacKinnon between Brandon Hagel and Nick Suzuki and McDavid centering Celebrini and Tom Wilson.
But by the end of the second period, for whatever reason, in a game against hockey minnow France, there was Cooper putting Mach3 back together for a few shifts. Their first shift together immediately drew the Celebrini penalty shot.
By the third period, however, all the lines were restored back to their base setting.
So the positive way to look at it is that Cooper has a super tool in his toolbox and knows he can reach for it come the medal round if he needs a spark.
The glass-half-empty way to look at it, if there’s such a thing for a team that outscored the opposition 20-3 in the preliminary round, is that perhaps there’s still a little indecision about how to most effectively bring out the best in his top players.
The most consistent line has been Crosby between Mitch Marner and Mark Stone. That line will never be touched. But despite having five points in three games, there’s an argument to be made that we haven’t seen the top-shelf version of MacKinnon quite yet. He’s been good, of course, but that sky-high standard of his which backs off defenders with aggressive speed, I’m not sure that’s been as prevalent as normal. Not quite as explosive as normal.
There’s also the fact that Suzuki himself hasn’t been all-world yet, either. So what’s the confidence level of him back at center between Hagel and Wilson when the Mach3 thing is happening?
Either way, Hagel for one wasn’t fussed about the lines changing mid-game. He likes the flexibility the team has with it.
“I think we’re just trying to learn,” Hagel said. “Obviously (if) you’re going to put Connor and Nate and Celebrini together, a lot of good things are probably going to happen. Yeah, we’re just trying to build as a team, get better every game and have that versatility to switch the lines if needed. Obviously it showed last game it worked and today it did as well.”
It’s not clear what makes the most sense: MacKinnon back at center with Hagel and Suzuki — I’m not sure that line has really gelled yet — or going with the Mach3 unit but creating more of a top-six, bottom-six lineup.
Cooper was noncommittal about it after the game.
“Just got to make sure, there’s a lot of players who want the puck and there’s only one puck out there,” said the Canadian head coach. “You have to get to the interior, so they were starting to do that a little bit more. We’ll see what happens. It depends on who we play and matchups.”
All of which brings me back to a conversation I had with Mike Keenan last February on the eve of the 4 Nations Face-Off. Midway through the three-game final of the 1987 Canada Cup, head coach Keenan put Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux together and played them as much as possible.
“You can’t overplay your best players,” Keenan said. “Particularly the fact it’s a very short tournament. And the results are immediate. It’s a little bit different than the Canada Cup that way (much longer event). But in my opinion, and Jon Cooper has a lot of experience and a winning pedigree, he’s going to be able to read the bench and read the game as it’s going along.
“But in my history of coaching, I never hesitated about playing my best players, that was just a given,” Keenan added.
I asked Cooper before the 4 Nations about the ’87 Canada Cup and how Keenan deployed 66 and 99, and whether he could see himself pulling out the nuclear option at some point in the 4 Nations.
“Well, I’ve been on record saying the ’87 Canada Cup was arguably the greatest hockey and three-game segment you’ve ever seen,” began Cooper. “But I think today’s players are different than those players back then. We don’t have Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux, but we have Nathan MacKinnon and Connor McDavid and go down the list. But that gap between, say, the 12th forward in ’87 and the first forward, I think was a lot farther than the gap between the 12th forward in today’s teams and the first forward.
“So there’s just weapons all over the ice. It was super cool being on the ice, being at ice level, and getting to watch what was going on. There’s just no holes. Not saying these other teams in the past had holes, but I think you can put a lot of guys together and create that chemistry. But we’ll have to see.”
Crosby and MacKinnon played together for long stretches at the 4 Nations, but only a few times did MacKinnon and McDavid get paired in that event.
One year later on a much more important stage, Cooper has done it for stretches twice in two games. It’s tantalizing. The Celebrini aspect of it makes it even more alluring.
So the question is, what now? Does Cooper start Wednesday’s quarterfinal game with it or go back to the base setting? I can assure you that’s a conversation the coaching staff will have over the next few days.
The superstar most affected is MacKinnon, who goes from his natural center in one instance to playing wing in the other. But he seems quite relaxed about it all either way.
“Yeah, definitely ready for whatever,” MacKinnon said after Sunday’s game. “Like I said, I’ll play with anybody. You know, it’s fun playing with every single guy on this team. So, it’s pretty good.”
My guess? Cooper keeps the nuclear option in his back pocket for when he absolutely needs it.