{"id":425975,"date":"2026-01-24T18:28:42","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T18:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/425975\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T18:28:42","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T18:28:42","slug":"san-jose-sharks-macklin-celebrini-buoyed-by-crowd-in-win-over-ny-rangers-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/425975\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose Sharks, Macklin Celebrini buoyed by crowd in win over NY Rangers"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE \u2013 If the San Jose Sharks have designs on making the playoffs<\/a> for the first time since 2019, they\u2019ll need to take care of business against the teams that have pretty much raised the white flag on their respective seasons.<\/p>\n

Fortunately for the Sharks, they happen to play quite a few games<\/a> against those kinds of teams between now and the middle of April.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s game was against the New York Rangers, who have put up the for-sale sign<\/a> on some of their veteran players, and had won just one of their last eight before their game at SAP Center.<\/p>\n

With that backdrop, the Sharks did what they had to do, getting two first period goals from Macklin Celebrini and a solid performance from goalie Alex Nedeljkovic in a 3-1 win over the Rangers before an energetic sellout crowd of 17,435 \u2013 buoyed somewhat by a mashup 49ers shirsy giveaway \u2014 at SAP Center.<\/p>\n

The Sharks are now 14-9-3 at home this season, and Friday\u2019s game marked the team\u2019s sixth sellout crowd in its last seven home games.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn warmups, I was like, \u2018This place is pumped,’\u201d said Will Smith, who had two assists Friday and now has four points in four games since his return from an upper body injury. \u201cSo I knew it was going to be a big night, especially with an Original Six team here. That was super cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Celebrini\u2019s goals came at the 1:09 and 7:37 marks of the first period, with his second giving the Sharks a 3-0 lead. His first goal, off a pass from Tyler Toffoli, came on the power play and snapped San Jose\u2019s 0-for-13 skid with the man advantage.<\/p>\n

Celebrini, Smith and Collin Graf combined for six points as the Sharks swept their season series with the Rangers. Celebrini had three goals and two assists, and Smith had two goals and two assists in the Sharks\u2019 6-5 overtime win<\/a>\u00a0over the Rangers in New York on Oct. 23, San Jose\u2019s first victory of the season.<\/p>\n

The Sharks\u2019 next home is on Feb. 26 against the Flames, as they finish their pre-Olympic schedule with a five-game road trip with stops in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Chicago and Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe energy and how loud they were, we definitely felt it,\u201d Celebrini said of the crowd. \u201cIt sucks that we only come home for one because I know they\u2019d be coming every night. I think once we got up on that lead, it was great to have them behind us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sharks have now sold out 12 of their 26 home games so far this season, compared to last season when only 15 of 41 home games were at capacity.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, it\u2019s crazy,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI think if you came to a game last year and then this year, you\u2019d be pretty surprised. I think that also comes with the team doing a lot better. We\u2019ve been saying we want to get it back to the old Shark Tank, and it\u2019s getting there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pavol Regenda also scored a power play goal in the first period as the Sharks improved to 9-4-0 since the Christmas break.<\/p>\n

Nedeljkovic made 22 saves through the first two periods, finished with 28, and has now won five straight games for the first time since his NHL debut in Jan. 2017. He\u2019s played in 202 NHL games.<\/p>\n

Before Friday, Nedeljkovic was 4-0-0 with a .922 save percentage in his last four appearances. His last start came on Monday when he stopped 35 shots, and fought Sergei Bobrovsky, in the Sharks\u2019 4-1 win over the Florida Panthers.<\/p>\n

Of the Sharks\u2019 next five opponents, only the Avalanche, the NHL\u2019s first place team, and the Oilers, the Pacific Division\u2019s second place team, are realistically expected to make the playoffs.<\/p>\n

After the break, the Sharks play 26 games in just over seven weeks. Of those games, only 11 are against teams that entered Friday in a playoff spot. They play three more games against the St. Louis Blues after the break, two more against the Blackhawks and Winnipeg Jets and one more against the Flames and Canucks.<\/p>\n

Via points percentage, it\u2019s the easiest remaining strength of schedule of any NHL team.<\/p>\n

Whether that helps the Sharks make the playoffs for the first time in seven years remains to be seen. San Jose enters Saturday as the Western Conference\u2019s second wild card team with 55 points, and\u00a0two points back of the Anaheim Ducks for third place in the Pacific Division.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know where we are in the standings and that every game is important,\u201d said Regenda, whose six goals since his recall from the AHL leads the Sharks. \u201cI feel like every guy in this locker room is on a mission to get the playoff spot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2013 If the San Jose Sharks have designs on making the playoffs for the first time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5111],"tags":[5,2614,1180,3328,35,5190,5193,4,36,168,2615,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-425975","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-rangers","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-inside-sports","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-rangers","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkrangers","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-rangers","17":"tag-san-jose-sharks","18":"tag-sharks-alert","19":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115951495088555363","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}