Sidney Crosby gave Macklin Celebrini no free draws on Wednesday night in San Jose, and video of their faceoff battle has been doing the rounds since, a next-day layer on the night Celebrini reached 200 career points. The clip, and the praise that followed from his own coach, are what Friday is actually about.
Yesterday, Celebrini scored at 11:32 of the third period and then set up Mason Marchment to tie the game, as San Jose lost 3-2 in a shootout to Pittsburgh. The full story of that milestone night is in iimiTV’s original Celebrini report: FINAL: Pittsburgh Penguins 3, San Jose Sharks 2 (SO), with Celebrini the fifth-youngest player in NHL history to 200 points, at 20 years and 151 days, in his 171st game.
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How to watch: San Jose Sharks at Utah Mammoth, Saturday, November 14, 9 p.m. ET at Delta Center, Salt Lake City
Stream: ESPN+
TV: NBC Sports Bay Area (Sharks), Utah 16 (Mammoth)
Crosby Tests Celebrini, Macklin Celebrini 200 Points And All
The respect showed up as pressure. The Hockey Beast’s November 13 report on the faceoff video describes Crosby, 39, lining up opposite Celebrini, 20, repeatedly at SAP Center, stick on hands and body on body, with nothing given as the younger captain tried to settle. Fans reading it back landed on the same point: that is the greatest level of respect Celebrini could receive, and game recognizes game.
The ledger backs up how hard the test was. The same report puts Crosby at 14 wins in 24 draws and Celebrini at eight in 18, with Crosby finishing with seven shots on goal without scoring. Celebrini still found his goal midway through the third, with Crosby on the ice, faking a shot from the high slot before beating Sergei Murashov to make it 2-1. That was point 200.
The Sharks themselves marked the moment on their own account on the night, posting that that was his 200th point, and then posted another look saying he had become the fifth-youngest player in NHL history to reach 200 points. The NHL’s own clip above, from the league’s official channel, is the cleanest replay of the goal itself.
Warsofsky Says Celebrini Wanted Two Points More
The fuller coach quote settled the day after. The Hockey News reported Ryan Warsofsky saying: “We’ve seen it right since the moment we drafted him. He’s a special player, special person. Worked extremely hard at his craft and it’s an honor that he did that. He’s a big part of our team. I think he’s probably more disappointed in not getting two points, and that just shows who he is.”
That framing matters because the other milestone in the game got its own human detail overnight. Marchment, whose 100th career goal tied it at 15:49, said in Sports Radio Service’s game wrap: “It’s special, my son was here today. I got to score for him. It’s pretty awesome for me, especially when I was younger never thinking I was going to play to get 100 goals in the National League, it’s pretty special.” On NHL.com’s official recap, Marchment added the team version: “It’s not been easy for us to put up a bunch of goals lately. We got the talent in here to do it, so I don’t think that’ll last for too long.”
A Breakout Inside A Slide, Then Utah On Saturday
The form line is real, and so is the slide around it. Sharks Hockey Digest’s November 12 analysis puts Celebrini at seven points, three goals and four assists, in his past five games, while San Jose sits at one win in seven, 1-5-1, with only two regulation wins in 21 games. In the third period against Pittsburgh, per Natural Stat Trick as cited there, San Jose led in high-danger chances four to one and in expected goals 0.75 to 0.69, the push that produced the comeback, without the finish to close it.
That is the specific information the milestone hides on its own: Celebrini is producing, the third-period push is measurable, and the team still leaves points behind. Warsofsky noted the net-front problem in the same analysis: San Jose did not get enough traffic in front early, got a little better in the second, and scored the tying goal when Marchment sat at the net.
Next comes the test of whether a milestone becomes momentum. Sports Radio Service notes San Jose opens a back-to-back Saturday in Salt Lake City against Utah, then returns home Sunday against Nashville. Utah’s official week-ahead on NHL.com lists the Saturday game as the first of three meetings this season between the Mammoth and the Sharks, and the first of two at Delta Center. For a captain who, by his coach’s account, wanted the two points more than the record, Utah is the first chance to turn 200 points into a win that counts the same way.
