SAN JOSE – By the time Macklin Celebrini and the San Jose Sharks woke up Monday, at least two things were true.

One, with his performances during the Sharks’ four-game road trip, Celebrini had breathed new life into the team’s season after a dismal start. Two, with his recent hot streak, Celebrini, 19, was third in the NHL with 15 points in nine games.

With 10 points in his last four games, Celebrini on Monday was named the NHL’s First Star of the Week.

“I’m playing with really good players,” Celebrini told reporters Sunday after he scored in overtime to finish a three-point night to lift the Sharks to a 6-5 win over the Minnesota Wild. “I think you have to give credit to your linemates. They support you, and they’re the ones making the play. I think we’ve been clicking.”

Here’s the other fact about Celebrini: He also, after the weekend, led all Canadian-born forwards in scoring.

Celebrini desperately wants to lift the Sharks out of the NHL’s basement but also has his eye on being a part of Canada’s stacked 2026 Olympic roster. It won’t be easy, of course. The Canadians will take 14 forwards to Milano-Cortina, and most of those spots are already spoken for with players who led the country to victory at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February.

Besides, Mark Scheifele of the Winnipeg Jets, Nick Suzuki of the Montreal Canadiens, and Tom Wilson of the Washington Capitals, all players not on Canada’s 4 Nations roster, are also off to fast starts. Rosters for each team participating in the Olympic tournament need to be submitted by Dec. 31.

For now, going into the Sharks’ home game against the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday, Celebrini is carrying a four-game point streak in which he has five goals and five assists. The Sharks, after a 0-4-2 start, have won two of three, including a 6-5 overtime win over the Rangers, and have six points in their first nine games.

A modest total, but it’s the most they’ve had at this point since the 2021-22 season.

“Especially after the start we had, that’s huge, getting those points, figuring out a way to win both those games,” Celebrini told NBC Sports California after Sunday’s win. “Tonight, they got on us and scored a couple of lucky ones. So, I thought we did a great job just staying with it.”

REUNION TIME

Just a few minutes after Sunday’s overtime victory, Celebrini went into the stands inside Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul and met with Luke Schumann and his two older siblings.

Celebrini first met Schumann on April 4, as the then-Sharks rookie welcomed his biggest fan to San Jose. Schumann was diagnosed with a rare form of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in May of last year, a few days after his fifth birthday. After completing chemotherapy in September, he was declared cancer-free, and he came to San Jose in the spring to meet Celebrini and the Sharks.

When the Sharks traveled to Minnesota to play the Wild on April 9, Celebrini had his first career five-point game in the NHL, including his first hat trick, in an 8-7 overtime loss. After his three-point game on Sunday, Celebrini said Schumann was his good luck charm.

GIVE AND TAKE

The Sharks are much improved with 29 goals in their first nine games. Last season, it took them 12 games to reach that total.

Of course, the Sharks’ most significant problem is keeping the puck out of their net, as they entered Monday last in the NHL in goals allowed per game (4.67). Of the 42 goals the Sharks have allowed, 11 have come on the penalty kill, with two more allowed on Sunday.

Related Articles

Celebrini’s overtime goal leads Sharks to crazy win over Minnesota Wild

Michael Misa scores first NHL goal, helping Sharks approach league record

Five Sharks musings: What’s best for Smith; ‘plan’ for Misa raises questions

Yaroslav Askarov shines, but Sharks take too many penalties in loss to Devils

San Jose Sharks defenseman out indefinitely with upper-body injury

MILESTONE MOMENT

Sharks winger Tyler Toffoli is slated to play his 900th NHL game on Tuesday, and fittingly, it will come against the Kings.

Toffoli, 33, was drafted in the second round, 47th overall, by Los Angeles in 2010. It was lower than Toffoli expected to be drafted after a 37-goal season with the Ottawa 67s, but it may have been for the best.

After playing his 18th game with Manchester of the AHL during the 2013-14 season, Toffoli was recalled by the Kings on Feb. 19, 2014, and never looked back. He had 10 points in his last 23 games with Los Angeles that season, then had 14 points in 26 playoff games in the Kings’ run to the Stanley Cup. He assisted on Alec Martinez’s game-winning, double-overtime goal in Game 5 of the Cup final against the New York Rangers, giving the Kings a four-games-to-one series win.

Toffoli ranks 11th in games played in the deep 2010 draft class, fifth in goals (293), and eighth in points (579). Fellow Sharks winger Jeff Skinner, drafted seventh overall that year by the Carolina Hurricanes, leads the 2010 draft class in games played (1,086) and goals (376).