{"id":434904,"date":"2026-01-29T20:59:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T20:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/434904\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T20:59:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T20:59:10","slug":"opponents-tonight-teammates-tomorrow-celebrini-talks-mcdavid-with-olympics-in-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/434904\/","title":{"rendered":"Opponents Tonight, Teammates Tomorrow; Celebrini Talks McDavid With Olympics In Mind"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>EDMONTON \u2014 Macklin Celebrini will be against Connor McDavid on Thursday when the San Jose Sharks visit the Edmonton Oilers, but they will soon be teammates.<\/p>\n<p>A big conglomeration of reporters fronted Celebrini before Thursday\u2019s game, and he was asked plenty about his future <a href=\"https:\/\/sharkshockeydigest.com\/san-jose-sharks-macklin-celebrini-makes-canadian-olympic-roster\/\" type=\"post\" id=\"3432\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Canadian Olympic<\/a> teammate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTonight, I hope he doesn\u2019t do anything, and in a week, I hope he does a lot,\u201d Celebrini said. \u201cNo, just it\u2019ll be fun to obviously play with him, but we still have four games left that we need to focus on.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Welcome to \u201cShark Week\u201d in Western Canada! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SanJoseSharks?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@SanJoseSharks<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBCSSharks?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@NBCSSharks<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EdmontonOilers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@EdmontonOilers<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/N5iW2R2ssc\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/N5iW2R2ssc<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Randy Hahn (@sharkvoice) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sharkvoice\/status\/2016937656093987326?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">January 29, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/p>\n<p>Celebrini is fourth in the NHL <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/stats\/skaters?reportName=summary&amp;reportType=season&amp;sort=points,a_gamesPlayed&amp;seasonFrom=20252026&amp;seasonTo=20252026&amp;gameType=2\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"(opens in a new tab)\">in scoring<\/a> compared to McDavid in first. Despite the offensive disparity, both players will be competing in their first Olympic Games. Celebrini, 19, made history as the youngest player to make a Canadian Olympic Hockey team. McDavid, 29, got a taste of best on best hockey at the <a href=\"https:\/\/sharkshockeydigest.com\/tag\/four-nations-face-off\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"42\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Four Nations Face-Off<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s exciting. It\u2019s something that we\u2019ve probably all been thinking about ever since. I mean, for me, when I got announced to the roster, [it was] just super exciting,\u201d Celebrini said. \u201cSuper cool. Just getting this opportunity to represent Canada at the Olympics. I mean, it\u2019s a huge honor, and something I don\u2019t take for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The San Jose Sharks franchise center has gotten to be around the NHL\u2019s best player on a brief occasion. When Celebrini was invited to the <a href=\"https:\/\/sharkshockeydigest.com\/tag\/canada-orientation-camp\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"2696\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Canadian Orientation camp<\/a>, Celebrini was able to skate with the Oilers superstar.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been great, super nice,\u201d Celebrini said. \u201cIt\u2019s been brief, but super nice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now, Celebrini will have the challenging task of helping his Sharks team to an important victory over a divisional opponent. The San Jose Sharks are just five points back of the Oilers, who are in second place in the Pacific Division. Winning tonight\u2019s game and staying in a playoff spot is the most important thing to the Sharks center.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s great. Obviously, they have a great team over there and some special players. I think we\u2019re all excited for the challenge today,\u201d Celebrini said. \u201cJust the way [McDavid] plays the game, it\u2019s special. The way skates. I mean, every time he\u2019s on the ice, he makes special things happen. You don\u2019t need to hear from me; you just need to watch him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The San Jose Sharks will roll the same lineup as their previous game, a <a href=\"https:\/\/sharkshockeydigest.com\/san-jose-sharks-celebrini-smith-askarov-misa-beat-vancouver-canucks\/\" type=\"post\" id=\"3650\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">5-2 win<\/a> over the <a href=\"https:\/\/sharkshockeydigest.com\/tag\/vancouver-canucks\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"656\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Vancouver Canucks<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/sharkshockeydigest.com\/tag\/yaroslav-askarov\/\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"334\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Yaroslav Askarov<\/a> will start for the second consecutive game.<\/p>\n<p>                                                    <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EDMONTON \u2014 Macklin Celebrini will be against Connor McDavid on Thursday when the San Jose Sharks visit the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5127],"tags":[3189,155,146,5,501,4,519,168,5306,5305,1780,8246,24660,3037],"class_list":{"0":"post-434904","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose-sharks","8":"tag-2026-winter-olympics","9":"tag-connor-mcdavid","10":"tag-edmonton-oilers","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-macklin-celebrini","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-san-jose","15":"tag-san-jose-sharks","16":"tag-sanjose","17":"tag-sanjosesharks","18":"tag-sharks","19":"tag-sharks-news","20":"tag-sj-sharks","21":"tag-team-canada"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115980400767574273","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434904","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=434904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}