Likely No. 1 Celebrini peeks behind Cup curtain
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Greg Wyshynski, ESPN
SUNRISE, Fla. — Connor McDavid remembers when he was Macklin Celebrini.
Before McDavid was drafted first overall by the Edmonton Oilers in 2015, he was given a tour of the Stanley Cup Final ahead of Game 3 between the Chicago Blackhawks and Tampa Bay Lightning. He met Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, and glimpsed what their processes were like during a championship series.
“It was really cool just getting a chance to meet some of those guys,” McDavid said.
On Monday, McDavid and the Oilers chatted with Celebrini, who is expected to be the top pick in the 2024 NHL draft, and other prospects after the morning skate prior to Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Florida Panthers (8 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN+).
“Seemed like some great kids,” McDavid said. “They said they had fun in the combine, which we were surprised at.”
Celebrini had previously met McDavid at a BioSteel camp in Halifax but was happy to get more time with him Monday.
“He was just asking about the trip, how it’s going,” Celebrini said. “It was awesome to talk to him, especially on a big game day, so we all really appreciated it.”
He said he was also relieved McDavid didn’t bring up the fact that Celebrini, a Vancouver native, was cheering on the Canucks against the Oilers at Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals.
“No, he didn’t. I don’t know if he saw that, luckily,” said Celebrini, laughing.
The NHL draft is scheduled to begin June 28 at the Sphere in Las Vegas (ESPN/ESPN+). The San Jose Sharks own the No. 1 pick and were one of eight teams that Celebrini met with at the recent draft combine.
Celebrini has ties to the Bay Area. He is the son of Rick Celebrini, the Golden State Warriors‘ director of sports medicine and performance. Macklin lived in the San Jose area and played for the San Jose Junior Sharks 14U AAA team.
“It’d be very cool if I get selected there,” said Celebrini, adding that he hasn’t talked about his NHL plans with Sharks general manager Mike Grier. “I mean, it’d be a dream come true.
“Of course, I’m nervous. I’m excited. I have different emotions about it. People say enjoy it — that it only happens once in your life — so I’m really going to try to do that.”
The Boston University star center, who won the Hobey Baker Award as the NCAA’s top men’s hockey player as a freshman, said he’s “still unsure on where I’m going to be next year” when it comes to playing in the NHL or back in college.
While San Jose is deep into a rebuild, they will have a growing collection of young talent on next year’s team. Will Smith, a Boston College forward drafted fourth in 2023, recently signed an entry level deal with San Jose.
Celebrini said he’ll spend the next few weeks before the draft training and spending time with friends and family. He’s made the most of his experience at the Stanley Cup Final, having observed everything from practices to media interviews. At one point, Celebrini commandeered the podium in an empty interview room to hold a “news conference,” with the other draft prospects standing in for the media.
“Just wanted to see if they had any questions,” he said with a laugh.
Mostly, Celebrini was happy to take some notes on the pros.
“I just like watching how the best players in the world prepare for these games, especially since the Stanley Cup Final is as big as it gets,” Celebrini said. “It’s just a learning experience, just kind of seeing how they approach it. I mean, you can obviously tell that they’re pretty laid back and they’ve done it before.”
One day, Celebrini wants to be where McDavid is right now — and not only offering sage advice to the next generation.
“I mean, hopefully in the future I’m playing the Stanley Cup Final,” he said. “I really hope so.”
LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani hit two homers in an 11-5 win over the San Francisco Giants on Saturday night, emphatically ending the three-time MVP’s longest homer drought since joining the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Ohtani led off the bottom of the first with his 24th homer, hammering Landen Roupp‘s fourth pitch 419 feet deep into the right-field bleachers with an exit velocity of 110.3 mph.
The slugger had been in a 10-game homer drought since June 2, going 10-for-40 in that stretch with no RBIs, although he still had an eight-game hitting streak during his power outage.
Ohtani led off the sixth with his 25th homer, sending Tristan Beck‘s breaking ball outside the strike zone into the bleachers in right. He also moved one homer behind the Yankees’ Aaron Judge and Seattle’s Cal Raleigh for the overall major league lead.
Dodgers fans brought him home with a standing ovation as Ohtani produced his third multihomer game of the season and the 22nd of his career.
Ohtani reached base four times and scored three runs in his first four at-bats, drawing two walks to go with his two homers.
Ohtani hadn’t played in 10 straight games without hitting a homer since 2023 in the final 10 games of his six-year tenure with the Los Angeles Angels.
Ohtani had slowed down a bit over the past two weeks after he was named the NL Player of the Month for May with a formidable performance, racking up 15 homers and 28 RBIs.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
BOSTON — Hunter Dobbins had quite the week.
First, he said last weekend that he would rather retire than pitch for the Yankees because his father was drafted by New York twice before being traded.
Then, he went out and beat the Yankees.
A few days after his comments about never wanting to pitch for New York, he had to defend his dad’s story about being drafted by the Yankees in response to a New York Post article that cited multiple official databases and the Yankees’ own records that couldn’t confirm Lance Dobbins ever played with the organization.
On Saturday night, Dobbins (4-1) followed up by going six shutout innings in Boston’s 4-3 victory over New York, his second win over the Yankees in less than a week.
“It’s a lot of fun,” he said. “I’m more worried about just the win column, whether it’s against them or anybody. My job is to try and help this team win as many ballgames as we can, and pitch in meaningful playoff baseball games. That’s what I’m more focused on.”
But he realizes what it means to the fan base in this longtime rivalry, with the Red Sox fans heard chanting about the Yankees outside the park before he spoke in an interview room.
“Yeah, I love being able to perform and get those wins for the fans here,” he said. “They deserve it. It’s a great city, passionate fan base, so being able to get those wins — especially twice in one week — means a lot and looking forward to trying to build on that going forward.”
In his victory over New York last Sunday, Dobbins held the Yankees to three runs over five innings, two on a first-inning homer by Aaron Judge.
On Saturday night, Judge went 0-for-3 against him, striking out twice on curveballs.
“It was just kind of scouting,” Dobbins said of his game plan against New York’s slugger after Garrett Crochet struck him out three times in the series opener Friday.
“Crochet has an electric fastball. I can throw it hard, but the shape isn’t quite as elite,” he said. “So we knew we had better weapons to go at him with, so I felt like we did a good job of kind of keeping a balanced attack throughout the order.”
Dobbins struck out five and gave up only two singles Saturday.
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