Sharks beat Blues in OT without Macklin Celebrini

The Sharks got the win without the guy everything runs through, and it was a new face who ended it.

Curtis Pashelka

@CurtisPashelka

Darnell Nurse scores in OT as Sharks win without Macklin Celebrini t.co/Css0dSF12T

Darnell Nurse ended it 1:03 into overtime. Ivar Stenberg slid him a backdoor feed and Nurse beat Joel Hofer at the near post. It was Nurse's first goal as a Shark since the offseason trade that brought him over from Edmonton. Tyler Toffoli had a goal and an assist, Collin Graf scored the other one, and Alex Nedeljkovic made 24 saves in his first start of the season. San Jose is 3-1-0, and all 3 wins have come in overtime. They're making it stressful, but they're banking points.

The real story is still Celebrini. He's dealing with a lower-body injury the team is calling day-to-day. He was in warmups before Tuesday's loss to Dallas and got scratched late, then skated Thursday morning in St. Louis and never came out for warmups. Warsofsky has already admitted it isn't new. In his words it's 'something we've been trying to manage here a little bit,' so this isn't some fluke tweak from pregame. After the win he wasn't adding to that.

Sheng Peng

@Sheng_Peng

Warsofsky wanted to focus on the win tonight, so he didn't say how Celebrini's skate went this morning. He also declined to share if Celebrini is practicing tomorrow. Well, I'll be there. See you in San Jose tomorrow at 12:30 PM!

So we don't know how the morning skate went, and we don't know if he's on the ice for Friday's practice. Wanting to enjoy a win is fair. But when the injury is something the team has been 'managing' and the kid is your captain and your whole franchise, not saying anything doesn't make anybody feel better. The practice session in San Jose is the next real clue. Whether Celebrini is out there, and in a regular jersey or not, tells you more than any postgame presser would.

There's a reason Sharks fans are nervous. Before he got hurt, Celebrini had 5 assists in 2 games, 3 in the overtime win over Florida and 2 more in the overtime win over Los Angeles. The team is 4-10-1 without him in the lineup, a split that basically spells out how much of this rebuild sits on 1 player. Toffoli said it himself after the game: the expectations are higher this year, and they have to prove they can play without him.

Next up is Saturday at SAP Center against Edmonton, which is Nurse's old team, so there's already a storyline there. The bigger question is whether Celebrini plays in it. If he's back skating with the group Friday, Saturday looks realistic. If Warsofsky goes quiet again, figure on a third straight game in street clothes and the Sharks trying to scrape out another overtime win.