Sheng Peng
Macklin Celebrini scored his first game-winning goal on Monday night, and in overtime too. But that’s not the only reason why it was special.
After the San Jose Sharks’ 5-4 OT victory over the Detroit Red Wings, Celebrini didn’t talk much about what he did on the goal.
But ex-Toronto Marlies assistant coach and hockey tactics guru Jack Han was happy to try to speak for Celebrini, explain what made the goal so high-end.
Before we get to Celebrini (71), let’s give Mikael Granlund (64) his due.
“It was a great play by Granny,” Celebrini said. “Kind of set a pick there.”
Granlund carries through the neutral zone, but cleverly, doesn’t attack at full speed. He knows his 18-year-old teammate has more speed, so he turns his body to hand it off to Celebrini, also setting a soft pick on and distracting Patrick Kane (88) in the process.
Kane gets a stick on the puck, but not enough.
“I just found myself a lot of space, I just tried to go low glove,” Celebrini said. “Felt like he was cheating a little bit, so it snuck through.”
The San Jose Sharks’ 2024 first-overall pick left out how he got Detroit netminder Cam Talbot to cheat.
Here was Han’s take.
“He was getting close to the net. Most players would start thinking about going above the goalie’s shoulder,” Han said.
“So Celebrini showed shot and got Talbot to move his hand away from his body to cover high,” Han said.
This is a good example of how fast Celebrini’s hands are. From Talbot’s vantage point, the left-handed Celebrini feints to the left, then pulls the puck in for a shot that the goalie might believe is ticketed high glove. And when Talbot moves his glove hand?
“Then he snuck it low,” Han said.
This is no everyday move, even for an NHL player.
“It’s advanced because most players at lower levels are thinking about getting their best shot off instead of catching the goalie off-guard,” Han said. “Scoring at the NHL level is about subverting defenders and goalies’ expectations.”
Celebrini’s deceptiveness has already scored a highlight-reel goal this season.
Take, for example, this no-look goal against Marc-Andre Fleury. Head up all the way, he never looks at the future Hall of Famer.
“That’s why there’s not a great correlation between shot power and scoring frequency,” Han explained.
With this kind of deceptiveness and ability to execute at high speeds, the future of the San Jose Sharks appears to be in good hands.
“Big moment for him and for us, too,” William Eklund said. “He’s gonna have a lot of those goals.”