{"id":452577,"date":"2026-02-09T21:33:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T21:33:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/452577\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T21:33:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T21:33:20","slug":"san-jose-sharks-week-ahead-schedule-storylines-olympic-break-edition-the-hockey-writers-san-jose-sharks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/452577\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose Sharks Week Ahead: Schedule & Storylines \u2013 Olympic Break Edition – The Hockey Writers – San Jose Sharks"},"content":{"rendered":"

The San Jose Sharks are on hiatus from NHL play due to the 2026 Winter Olympics break. There are no regular-season NHL games scheduled.<\/p>\n

The focus of the week ahead for Sharks fans shifts entirely to the international stage in Milan, Italy, where key Sharks players will represent their countries:<\/p>\n

Macklin Celebrini\u00a0(Canada)<\/p>\n

Philipp Kurashev\u00a0(Switzerland)<\/p>\n

Pavol Regenda\u00a0(Slovakia)<\/p>\n

Alexander Wennberg\u00a0(Sweden)<\/p>\n

Macklin Celebrini on the World Stage<\/p>\n

The biggest story for the franchise is 19-year-old Macklin Celebrini making the star-studded Team Canada roster. It is incredibly rare for a teenager to crack the Canadian Olympic roster, which is filled with veteran superstars like Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon.<\/p>\n

Celebrini is having a Hart Trophy-caliber sophomore season (81 points in 55 games)<\/a>. The Olympics serve as his \u201ccoming out party\u201d to the global audience, where he will likely center a line or play significant minutes alongside future Hall of Famers.<\/p>\n

A Surprise Playoff Push<\/p>\n

Entering the Olympic break, the Sharks are surprisingly competitive, sitting just five points out of a wild-card spot with a record hovering around .500 (27-24-4)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This unexpected success creates a difficult decision for general manager Mike Grier approaching the March trade deadline. Does he \u201csell\u201d veterans for assets, or does he \u201cbuy\u201d (or hold) to reward the young core with a playoff chase?<\/p>\n

The \u201cRest\u201d of the Roster<\/p>\n

While the Olympic contingent heads to Italy, the rest of the young core\u2014including Will Smith and William Eklund\u2014get a critical three-week reset.<\/p>\n

The break provides time for any nagging injuries to heal before the team resumes play on Feb. 26 against the Calgary Flames.<\/p>\n

Related \u2013 Guide to the 2026 Winter Olympics Men\u2019s Hockey Tournament<\/a><\/p>\n

Sharks Olympic Schedule This Week<\/p>\n

DateTime (ET)MatchupPlayers to WatchWed, Feb 1110:40 AMSlovakia vs. FinlandRegenda3:10 PMSweden vs. ItalyWennbergThu, Feb 126:10 AMSwitzerland vs. FranceKurashev10:40 AMCzechia vs. CanadaCelebriniFri, Feb 136:10 AMFinland vs. SwedenWennberg6:10 AMItaly vs. SlovakiaRegenda3:10 PMCanada vs. SwitzerlandCelebrini vs. KurashevSat, Feb 146:10 AMSlovakia vs. SwedenRegenda vs. WennbergSun, Feb 156:10 AMSwitzerland vs. CzechiaKurashev10:40 AMCanada vs. FranceCelebrini<\/p>\n

AI tools were used to support the creation or distribution of this content, however, it has been carefully edited and fact-checked by a member of The Hockey Writers editorial team. For more information on our use of AI, please visit our Editorial Standards<\/a> page.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Jose Sharks are on hiatus from NHL play due to the 2026 Winter Olympics break. There…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5127],"tags":[3189,5,501,4,1265,4525,519,168,5306,5305,1780],"class_list":{"0":"post-452577","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-hockey","10":"tag-macklin-celebrini","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-pavol-regenda","13":"tag-philipp-kurashev","14":"tag-san-jose","15":"tag-san-jose-sharks","16":"tag-sanjose","17":"tag-sanjosesharks","18":"tag-sharks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116042819914966994","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452577","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=452577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}