Despite participating in warmups for Monday’s game in Dallas, San Jose Sharks star Macklin Celebrini was scratched just before faceoff from the team’s first road game. (The Sharks subsequently got shelled by the Stars, 5-0.) After the game, Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky told reporters that Celebrini was “still being evaluated” and that the team would know more about the severity of the injury later.
NHL teams are notoriously vague about player injuries – something the league has continued to allow through the years – and the Sharks (2-1) are no different, only saying Celebrini suffered a “lower body injury.” (The other currently injured Sharks either have an “upper body” injury or an “undisclosed” injury, to give you a sense of things.)
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At the team’s practice in Dallas on Tuesday morning, Warsofsky said “not much has changed” in the 12 hours since his initial comments. When San Jose Hockey Now reporter Sheng Peng asked if Celebrini’s injury happened during the warmups, Warsofsky said no. Peng asked the natural follow-up: So when did it happen?
“[I’m] not really sure, to be honest with you,” Warsofsky said. “This has been something we’ve been trying to manage here a little bit … still being evaluated, you know, I’d put him in that day-to-day category and we’ll go from there.”
When Peng tried to ask how long Celebrini has been hurt and how long the team has known, Warsofsky said he was “not going to get into players’ injuries and when they happened.” He did say Celebrini would travel to St. Louis with the team that day ahead of San Jose’s game against the Blues on Thursday, though.
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Given Celebrini’s star status – exemplified in a glowing GQ feature published Wednesday – and the team’s reliance on him, any injury is something local and national reporters were going to ask about around the league. And on Tuesday night, insider Chris Johnston went on TSN, the national sports network in Canada, and offered an “encouraging” outlook of Celebrini, sharing some new, previously unreported information.
“The sense right now, there’s nothing to be too concerned about,” Johnston said on TSN’s “Insider Trading” segment. “That he’s just being evaluated, they’re going to see how he responds to treatment here to a lower body issue that he’s been managing through training camp and the early part of the season. Given how important Celebrini is to the Sharks and how they looked without him against the Stars, obviously good news for San Jose that it doesn’t look like it’s going to be a long-term absence.”
Peng and Sharks radio announcer Dan Rusanowsky then reported on Wednesday that Celebrini again didn’t practice.
And that’s when things took a turn. When Warsofsky met with reporters after practice, he directly refuted Johnston: “That’s completely wrong. That’s not true.” Warsofsky did not say what was true about Celebrini, again declining to answer Peng’s follow-up question, saying “not much has changed.” (Warsofsky did confirm to Peng, though, that Celebrini hadn’t done any skating on his own, away from team practice, on Tuesday or Wednesday.)
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Peng then reached out to Johnston, who told the Sharks reporter that he “misspoke by referencing training camp” and was saying that Celebrini’s injury is not one that the Sharks have any long-term concern over. TSN, though, has not updated the story that quotes Johnston’s report to reflect that.
At this point, all we know is that Celebrini didn’t get hurt in training camp but that he apparently did sometime between then and Monday night. Whatever lower body injury he has wasn’t bad enough to keep him out of the lineup on Monday or out of warmups, but it flared up enough to pull him from the game right before the puck drop and keep him out of practice the last two days. There’s still no clarity surrounding Thursday’s availability or when he’s expected back.
The Sharks, with or without Celebrini, will face the Blues at 5 p.m. on Thursday.
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This article originally published at The Macklin Celebrini injury reports do not add up.
