{"id":477793,"date":"2026-02-28T22:42:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T22:42:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/477793\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T22:42:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T22:42:26","slug":"san-jose-sharks-macklin-celebrini-set-to-face-connor-mcdavid-oilers-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/477793\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose Sharks, Macklin Celebrini set to face Connor McDavid, Oilers"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE \u2013 The reeling San Jose Sharks<\/a> are making some lineup changes for their game against the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday, inserting Shakir Mukhamadullin<\/a> for Timothy Liljegren on defense and Pavol Regenda for Ryan Reaves on the fourth line.<\/p>\n

Mukhamadullin was a healthy scratch in the Sharks\u2019 4-1 loss<\/a> to the Calgary Flames on Thursday and, through a mix of injuries and scratches, has played in just 26 of 56 games so far this season.<\/p>\n

Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said he wanted Mukhamadullin to be on his toes defensively as they play one of the NHL\u2019s most offensively prolific teams in the Oilers. Edmonton\u2019s captain, Connor McDavid, leads the NHL with 100 points in 60 games, and the Oilers are third in the NHL with an average of 3.52 goals per game after they smacked the Los Angeles Kings 8-1<\/a> on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust play solid hockey, defend with some urgency and some jam,\u201d Warsofsky said of what he wants to see from Mukhamadullin. \u201cPuck play is critical. (Be) a guy that can help us keep pucks out of the back of our net. Keep taking another step.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Mukhamadullin expressed his frustration<\/a> with how this season has unfolded and pondered where he is in his career.<\/p>\n

Mukhamadullin\u2019s ice time has been notably down from 2024-25,<\/a> as he\u2019s averaging 16:15 per game, well below the 18:04 he posted in 30 NHL games last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I\u2019m not happy with how my season is going,\u201d Mukhamaduklin told the Bay Area News Group. \u201cNot playing that many games. Also have, like, small ice time. When I play, it\u2019s always 13, 14 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it is what it is. Just try to stay positive every day. Just a lot of thinking in my head right now about my season, but just stay positive and just prepare for every game and be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sharks (27-25-4) have lost their last five games and enter Saturday five points back of the Seattle Kraken for the second wild card spot in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n

Warsofsky said he understood that Mukhamadullin was frustrated but added that, \u201cyou have to play well. It\u2019s the National Hockey League. We\u2019re in a unique situation as an organization, where we\u2019re trying to develop some players. We\u2019re also trying to win critical hockey games down the stretch where we didn\u2019t think we were going to be where we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Liljegren made a costly error in the third period of Thursday\u2019s loss to Calgary. With the Sharks trailing by one, Liljegren\u2019s attempted outlet pass went off a Flames forward instead and right to Nazem Kadri, who scored to give Calgary a 3-1 lead.<\/p>\n

Regenda also did not play in Thursday\u2019s loss but is coming off an impressive performance at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, where he had three goals and two assists in six games for Slovakia,<\/a> which finished fourth.<\/p>\n

Sharks goalie Yaroslav Askarov will start Saturday\u2019s game after he made 25 saves in Thursday\u2019s loss. Askarov is 0-0-2 in two career starts against the Oilers, stopping 67 of 74 shots for a .905 save percentage. In San Jose\u2019s game in Edmonton on Jan. 29, Askarov and the Sharks had a three-goal lead in the third period before the Oilers charged back to tie the game and send it into overtime, where Zach Hyman scored to give Edmonton a 4-3 win.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s game marks the first meeting between McDavid and Sharks top line center Macklin Celebrini<\/a> since they were linemates for Canada at the Olympic Games. McDavid led the tournament with 13 points in six games,<\/a> and Celebrini had 10 points, with his five goals leading all skaters.<\/p>\n

Celebrini is the NHL\u2019s fifth-leading scorer with 81 points in 56 games, although he\u2019s been held off the scoresheet in three of his last four games.<\/a><\/p>\n

Warsofsky said he and Celebrini discussed what he saw from certain players at the Olympics and how they play.<\/p>\n

\u201cMack is a real student of the game, one, so he obviously learned some things by playing with arguably the two best players in the world in (Colorado Avalanche center) Nathan McKinnon and McDavid,\u201d Warsofsky said. \u201cYour pace has to be extremely high, so Mack\u2019s done a really good job of taking it all in and soaking it all in, and he\u2019ll get better from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s game is the first of back-to-back matinees for the Sharks at SAP Center, as they host the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday at 1 p.m. The Sharks finish their homestand with games against Montreal on Tuesday, St. Louis on Friday, and the New York Islanders next Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2013 The reeling San Jose Sharks are making some lineup changes for their game against the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5127],"tags":[2617,5,4,2602,519,168,5306,5305,1780,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-477793","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose-sharks","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-olympics","12":"tag-san-jose","13":"tag-san-jose-sharks","14":"tag-sanjose","15":"tag-sanjosesharks","16":"tag-sharks","17":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116150674711301065","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477793","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=477793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}