25:53 for Macklin Celebrini: Jon Cooper thinks it should have been more

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25:53 for Macklin Celebrini: Jon Cooper thinks it should have been more
Credit: Capture d'écran/Twitter

Since the start of these Olympic Games, only Connor McDavid has scored more points than Macklin Celebrini in the men's hockey tournament. The young Sharks star, aged just 19, is playing some very, very big hockey.

And in today's game, her playing time was particularly noteworthy. In fact, Celebrini spent no less than 25:53 on the ice.

That's a high among all Canadian skaters, including defensemen.

What we see clearly is that Celebrini has her coach's confidence. Despite her young age, Jon Cooper trusts her to play a lot of minutes in an important role, and Celebrini is more than rising to the occasion.

And after today's game, when Cooper was asked about Celebrini's ice time, he even went so far as to say that he was surprised he hadn't played him even more.

Reminder: he is a 19-year-old forward who was the most used skater on his entire team.

With Sidney Crosby out of the lineup, Cooper needed to rely even more than ever on his trusted players. And in Celebrini, he clearly found one, even going so far as to describe him as a generational player who found a way to make things happen in a tournament where it's almost impossible to do so.

And that really impresses Cooper.

One has to wonder what Celebrini's workload will look like in the gold medal game. We don't know if Crosby will be able to play (although Cooper has left the door open for that to happen), and it's clear that Nathan MacKinnon isn't 100%. So don't be surprised if, in a gold medal game against the United States, Celebrini once again spends a lot of time on the ice. Because he has clearly earned his coach's trust since the start of the tournament.


In brief

– Juraj Slafkovský wants to go for the bronze medal.

“We're going to get a good sleep, we're going to wake up with a smile on our faces tomorrow and we're going to go do it.” – Juraj Slafkovský on the opportunity for Slovakia to win a bronze.

The loss bothered him, but the opportunity seemed more exciting than the disappointment.

— Arpon Basu (@ArponBasu) February 20, 2026

– The two grand finalists broke everything during the tournament.

— Hehe.

— Logical.

Our dear @jnblanchetJDQ has a hard time believing that the Hockeys' potato 🇨🇦 was beating at a normal rate 🏒https://t.co/3UlyBj3zU8

— TVA Sports (@TVASports) February 20, 2026

– Interesting.

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