{"id":469164,"date":"2026-02-24T05:34:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T05:34:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/469164\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T05:34:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T05:34:33","slug":"san-jose-sharks-macklin-celebrini-returning-home-after-olympic-heartbreak-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/469164\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose Sharks’ Macklin Celebrini returning home after Olympic heartbreak"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE \u2013 Sharks forwards Alex Wennberg<\/a> and Philipp Kurashev returned to practice on Monday after their respective Olympic experiences, and center Macklin Celebrini<\/a> will likely soon be back in San Jose after he competed for Team Canada<\/a> in the gold medal game in Milan.<\/p>\n

The return of another Sharks Olympian to San Jose, though, has hit a snag, as coach Ryan Warsofsky said winger Pavol Regenda<\/a> \u2014 as of early Monday afternoon \u2014 remained stuck in New York City due to the massive snowstorm<\/a> that has pounded the northeast, causing flight delays and cancellations.<\/a><\/p>\n

Regenda and the Slovakian team faced Team Finland in the bronze medal game in Milan on Saturday, losing 6-1. Celebrini and the Canadians lost 2-1 in overtime<\/a> to the United States on Sunday.<\/p>\n

After Regenda went to New York, the Canadian team, like the Americans, flew to Miami to avoid the storm that, as of early Monday afternoon, had dropped nearly 20 inches of snow<\/a> in Central Park.<\/p>\n

It was unclear if or when Celebrini or Regenda would practice before the Sharks\u2019 home game on Thursday against the Calgary Flames. The snowstorm was supposed to begin tapering off in New York City by late Monday.<\/p>\n

Considering how big a role Celebrini had with the Canadians, logging heavy minutes on the top line throughout the Olympic tournament, including Sunday,<\/a> Warsofsky added that the Sharks\u2019 No. 1 center would likely not need to practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll talk to him and see how he\u2019s feeling,\u201d Warsofsky said of Celebrini, the Sharks\u2019 leading scorer with 81 points in 55 games.<\/a> \u201cBut if he doesn\u2019t practice, it\u2019s not the end of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wennberg and Kurashev\u2019s teams were both eliminated from the Olympics in the quarterfinals last Wednesday in 3-on-3 overtime. Wennberg and Sweden lost 2-1 to the U.S., and Kurashev\u2019s Switzerland team lost 3-2 to Finland.<\/p>\n

\u201cDisappointing result for the Swedes. We were expecting to fight a little longer than we did,\u201d Wennberg said. \u201cObviously, we played a good team in the U.S., but overall, it was a great experience. What a tournament. The whole experience with the best-on-best. But right now, it\u2019s still a bit bitter.\u201d<\/p>\n

OVERTIMES SINK SHARKS<\/p>\n

Overall, three of the four quarterfinals and the gold medal game were decided in 3-on-3 overtime, a method used in the NHL to determine a winner during the regular season, but not in the playoffs. In the NHL postseason, teams play 5-on-5 until a goal is scored.<\/p>\n

Wennberg, Kurashev, and Celebrini all saw their gold medal dreams end during 3-on-3 overtime. Wennberg and Kurashev would have preferred to play it out NHL-style, but also acknowledged that the rules are the same for every team.<\/p>\n

\u201cA 3-on-3, it\u2019s like it\u2019s a 50-50,\u201d Wennberg said. \u201cThere are so many skilled players, so obviously, you trade chances a little bit more. I feel like that game is more up for grabs. Maybe if you do 4-on-4, 5-on-5, it\u2019s going to take a little bit longer, more structured, and maybe a different result.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it would be cooler or better if it were 5-on-5, but we could have won the game the same way they did,\u201d Kurashev said. \u201cSo it\u2019s not like it\u2019s an advantage for someone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

PROUD AMERICAN<\/p>\n

Warsofsky said he and his son got up to watch Sunday\u2019s game, which began at 5 a.m. Pacific time, and felt an enormous amount of pride in the Americans\u2019 thrilling victory.<\/a><\/p>\n

Warsofsky has a close connection to Mike Sullivan, coach of the U.S. team, knows some of the players on the roster, and coached the Americans to the gold medal at last year\u2019s IIHF World Championship in Sweden.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just awesome,\u201d Warsofsky said. \u201cIt\u2019s great for hockey. It\u2019s great for our country. I\u2019m extremely proud to be an American and watch those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

The last time the Americans won Olympic gold in men\u2019s hockey was in 1980 in Lake Placid, as the Miracle on Ice team upset the Soviet Union and Finland to capture gold.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I think is so great about it is we\u2019re going to see another evolution and change of how many people want to play hockey because of that game, just that one game,\u201d Warsofsky said. \u201cThere\u2019ll be kids out there that want to grab a hockey stick and skates, and hopefully that\u2019s in San Jose and all around the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

DELLANDREA SKATES<\/p>\n

Ty Dellandrea skated in a tracksuit briefly before the start of Monday\u2019s practice, but a return to the active roster is not imminent, with coach Ryan Warsofsky saying last week that the centerman remains week to week.<\/p>\n

Dellandrea sustained a lower-body injury in the Sharks\u2019 Jan. 6 home game against Columbus, as he crashed legs-first into the post \u2014 after he was tripped \u2014 as he took the puck to the Blue Jackets\u2019 net.<\/p>\n

Dellandrea has 11 points in 42 games for the Sharks this season and has become one of the team\u2019s faceoff leaders and top penalty-killing forwards.<\/p>\n

REAVES ACTIVATED<\/p>\n

Winger Ryan Reaves was activated off injured reserve on Monday, a day after center Filip Bystedt was returned to the Barracuda. Reaves had an upper-body ailment and was placed on IR before the Sharks played the Colorado Avalanche on Feb. 4.<\/p>\n

Reaves skated on the Sharks\u2019 fourth line Monday with center Adam Gaudette and forward Barclay Goodrow. With Celebrini still on his way back to San Jose, Zack Ostapchuk centered the first line with Will Smith and Kiefer Sherwood on the wings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2013 Sharks forwards Alex Wennberg and Philipp Kurashev returned to practice on Monday after their respective…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469165,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[895,26,5294,896,5,501,15345,56717,4,56716,1265,168],"class_list":["post-469164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary-flames","tag-calgary","tag-calgary-flames","tag-calgaryflames","tag-flames","tag-hockey","tag-macklin-celebrini","tag-milan-olympics","tag-new-york-snowstorm","tag-nhl","tag-northeast-snowstorm","tag-pavol-regenda","tag-san-jose-sharks"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116123983139138767","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469164","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=469164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}