{"id":497081,"date":"2026-03-10T20:23:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T20:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/497081\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T20:23:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T20:23:14","slug":"sabres-coach-lindy-ruff-drops-truth-bomb-on-preparing-for-macklin-celebrini","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/497081\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabres coach Lindy Ruff drops truth bomb on preparing for Macklin Celebrini"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nhl\/san-jose-sharks\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">San Jose Sharks<\/a> have one of the most potent young weapons in the NHL, in star Macklin Celebrini. <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nhl\/san-jose-sharks\/sharks-news-macklin-celebrini-trails-wayne-gretzky-sidney-crosby-bonkers-stat\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Celebrini leads the Sharks this season<\/a> in points, goals and assists. He <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MatthewFairburn\/status\/2031393842491003187\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">is getting flowers<\/a> from Buffalo Sabres coach Lindy Ruff, ahead of the clash between the two teams.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe scares me,\u201d Ruff said about Celebrini, per The Athletic.<\/p>\n<p>Buffalo and San Jose tangle on Tuesday night. The Sabres enter the contest riding a seven-game win streak. Buffalo also has eight wins in their last 10 games.<\/p>\n<p>The Sharks meanwhile go into the game Tuesday with losses in back-to-back contests. San Jose has a 30-25-6 record on the season. <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nhl\/san-jose-sharks\/sharks-news-macklin-celebrini-nasty-no-look-between-legs-pass-vs-capitals\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Celebrini leads the way with 89 points on the campaign<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Macklin Celebrini hopes to lead the Sharks to the postseason<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3685426\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Macklin-Celebrini.jpg\" alt=\"San Jose Sharks forward Macklin Celebrini (71) follows the play against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\"  \/>Perry Nelson-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/clutchpoints.com\/nhl\/san-jose-sharks\/meet-macklin-celebrini-sharks-no-1-2024-nhl-draft\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sharks drafted Celebrini with the first overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft<\/a>. He was immediately seen as the face of the franchise, and the star who would bring the Sharks back to prominence.<\/p>\n<p>Celebrini is certainly playing that part. He is fifth in the NHL in points this season, with his 89 points. He certainly has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/2026\/03\/10\/buffalo-sabres-macklin-celebrini-san-jose-sharks-lindy-ruff\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">won the respect<\/a> of opposing coaches, like Ruff.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIncredible talent. I watched him in the Olympics. He\u2019s an unbelievably talented kid. He\u2019s a team driver, can drive your offense, and is unbelievably competitive. He can make plays that a lot of people can\u2019t make,\u201d Ruff said, per The Mercury News.<\/p>\n<p>Celebrini is hoping to now lead his San Jose club to the postseason. The Sharks have a chance to get there, if they can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/story\/_\/id\/48157427\/nhl-playoffs-bracket-standings-2026-wild-card-bracket-games-matchups\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">keep the wins coming<\/a> for the rest of the regular season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe San Jose Sharks have 66 points through 61 games. Of their remaining 21 games, just eight are against playoff teams,\u201d ESPN reported Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>San Jose has already surpassed their point total from the entire 2024-25 season. During that campaign, the Sharks mustered just 20 wins and 52 total points. Time will tell if Celebrini and company can keep the wins coming for the rest of this regular season.<\/p>\n<p>The Sharks and Sabres play at 7:00 ET on Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The San Jose Sharks have one of the most potent young weapons in the NHL, in star Macklin&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5127],"tags":[5,501,4,519,168,5306,5305,1780],"class_list":{"0":"post-497081","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose-sharks","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-macklin-celebrini","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-san-jose","12":"tag-san-jose-sharks","13":"tag-sanjose","14":"tag-sanjosesharks","15":"tag-sharks"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116206751763362415","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497081","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=497081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}