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Canada’s Macklin Celebrini scores on a penalty shot against France goalie Julian Junca in their game on Sunday. Canada rolled to a 10-2 win.Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
Before Team Canada stepped on the ice for its first practice at the Milan Cortina Olympics last week, two players emerged from the arena tunnel early, ahead of everyone else.
And for a few minutes, the ice belonged to them.
There was Connor McDavid, the world’s best hockey player, stone-faced and business-like, testing out the fresh ice. And there was Macklin Celebrini, the 19-year-old NHL sophomore, snapping pucks off the crossbar.
At that moment, Celebrini was still a question.
In the midst of a remarkable second NHL season where he sits fourth in league points, Celebrini had played his way onto Canada’s roster at a precocious age. He wasn’t yet four years old when Sidney Crosby scored the golden goal to win the 2010 Winter Games, but here he was at a best-on-best Olympics. How would he fare on a roster of elite superstars?
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Three games into the tournament, there is no question.
The ice once again belongs to McDavid and Celebrini with 15 points between them – nine for McDavid and six for Celebrini. But it’s the rise of the kid from North Vancouver that is commanding the most attention.
Not just the breakout star of the Olympics, he has emerged as the heir apparent to a post-Crosby, post-McDavid world. Hockey has seen the future, and it is Celebrini.
McDavid calls him “a dog on a bone.”
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The fifth-leading scorer in the Olympic tournament, Celebrini has already shown himself to be one of the world’s best hockey players, despite being just 19.Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
“Ice in his veins,” Canadian forward Sam Bennett said. “It’s awesome to see a young guy with that much confidence.”
Though he speaks somewhat softly, and doesn’t offer up a lot of words, Celebrini doesn’t doubt himself. It’s the first thing you notice about him.
Asked in Toronto a month before the Olympics if he was surprised by his breakout NHL season, where he’s logged 81 points in 55 games, he seemed confused by the question.
“Have I surprised myself? Um, no,” Celeberini said. “I mean, I believe in myself. I believe in what I can do. I believe in the work I’ve put in.”
This week his confidence was on full display in Milan when he scored on a penalty shot against France after being hauled down on a breakaway.
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The way head coach Jon Cooper tells it, the referee skated over to explain to the bench that under international rules, Canada could select any player to take the shot.
“And basically 18 guys turn around and look at me and say, ‘Oh, what are you going to do now, coach?’” Cooper said.
Then Cooper looked up and saw Celebrini had already appointed himself shooter. Cooper, knowing what kind of tournament he’s having, didn’t bother intervening.
“I would have been booed out of the building if I didn’t let him shoot,” the coach said.
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Sidney Crosby, left, got a feel for Celebrini’s talent at last year’s world championships. He went to bat for the young star in the summer, saying that the San Jose Shark deserved to be in the conversation when it came to choosing who would play on the Olympic team.Anders Wiklund/The Associated Press
The goal Celebrini scored was a backhand fake, then a quick forehand shot low beneath the goalie’s blocker arm. It’s a slick move elite players like Nikita Kucherov have injected into the game, and it takes patience and precision to execute.
“I don’t have that in my bag,” Canadian forward Brandon Hagel later said of the shot. “He’s going to be one special player.”
Celebrini doesn’t get very flowery when asked about his game.
“I don’t know. I wasn’t really thinking much” he said with a shrug.
Others are happy to do the talking for him.
Crosby played with him at last year’s world championships and, after the two developed chemistry, invited Celebrini to train with him and Nathan MacKinnon last summer.
When Crosby was asked in September at Team Canada’s orientation camp in Calgary if Celebrini should be on the team in Milan, Celebrini had not yet begun his remarkable season, but Crosby said he deserved serious consideration.
“He’s earned the right to be in the conversation,” Crosby said.
But Celebrini’s performance at the Olympics has changed the conversation. He’s no longer just worthy of the team. He’s now one of Canada’s best players.
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