After dominant debut, Celebrini line looks 'impossible' to stop

Team Canada enjoyed a day off on Wednesday in Malmo, Sweden. 

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Canada's second line – Macklin Celebrini between Fraser Minten and Jordan Dumais – made a statement in the team's exhibition opener on Tuesday night. All three players scored at even strength during an 8-0 win against an under-25 team from Denmark. 

"We're all different players," said Dumais, a Halifax Mooseheads winger, who leads the Canadian Hockey League in points per game. "I'm more of a playmaker. Mints is kind of a two-way game and Cele just does it all. He's so fast out there. We complement each other."

"Mack's all over the ice hounding the puck," said Minten, who started the season with the Toronto Maple Leafs. "Jordan's always making plays every time he touches it. I just try to support them and read off them. Their IQ is off the charts, so it's super fun to play with those two guys."  

Dumais, who was named Canada's player of the game, opened the scoring on the line's first shift of the night. He took a pass from Celebrini behind the net and walked out in front before firing home a shot. That ended up being Canada's only goal in the opening 20 minutes. 

Celebrini and Minten added their own even-strength tallies in the third period. The pair also linked up for another goal on the power play.  

"We have a lot of chemistry," said Celebrini, who is a freshman at Boston University and the frontrunner to be picked first overall in the next NHL draft. "We think the game very similarly, so it's easy to make plays and kind of these little give-and-go plays. We always know where each other are, so it's a lot of fun."

He smiled. 

"It's a lot of fun."

How hard will it be to slow down this trio at the World Juniors? 

"Pretty much impossible," predicted Team Canada defenceman Oliver Bonk, who struggled to contain Celebrini during a recent practice. "I had to go against him in camp once and he made me look silly. When you put three players like that on a line, I don't even know what to do against them. I'm happy I don't have to go against them myself." 

"It's a fun line to watch when you're on the bench," said Team Canada defenceman Denton Mateychuk. "As a hockey fanatic, you love seeing that stuff. It's going to be a really good line for the tournament."

Celebrini, 17, didn't play like the youngest guy on the ice. He was consistently leading conversations before faceoffs with his teammates. 

"He looks like a vet on the ice," said Dumais, a Columbus Blue Jackets prospect. "He plays a mature game. He does everything out there."

Dumais and Celebrini also played together during the selection camp when Minten, a lock for the roster, sat out. 

Minten, who plays centre for the Saskatoon Blades in the WHL, made a smooth transition to the wing in what was his first game since Dec. 9. 

"I thought I did pretty good there," he said. "It's nice to get some reps in exhibition here first. I haven't touched it in a while, but it felt pretty comfortable, to be honest."

"You expect that from a guy like him," said Celebrini, a fellow Vancouver native. "I know sometimes we switch off a little bit in the D-zone, but he's a great player and he can adapt his game to the wing. I love having him there."

There will be a lineup shuffle on Thursday when Boston Bruins centre Matt Poitras slots into a regular unit for the first time, but there's no way Alan Letang will be touching Minten, Celebrini and Dumais.

"They played with a lot of pace," Team Canada's head coach said. "They shared the puck a lot. Dumais, you give him one or two seconds and he finds those guys, but they were jumping to holes, which helps too. They seem to have a little bit of chemistry. Hopefully they can continue to find it."  

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Canada's stand-out performer on defence was Mateychuk, who is the captain of the Moose Jaw Warriors. 

"It always seems like he's an option in the offensive zone for a puck or to move it from side to side," observed former Chicago Blackhawks defenceman Brent Seabrook, who is part of Hockey Canada's management team. "He's always got his head up and making a good play, making the right play."

"He's something else," said Team Canada centre Brayden Yager, who plays with Mateychuk in Moose Jaw. "You see it every game, he does something special. He's going back for pucks, getting forechecked, and he just somehow always ends up with a ton of time and skating up the ice full speed. In the O-zone, he's almost like a fourth forward sometimes and produces so much offence."

Mateychuk started the season on a 23-game point streak in the Western Hockey League but was held off the board in his final game before leaving for the World Juniors. It didn't take him long to get back on the scoresheet. The Blue Jackets prospect scored twice on Tuesday. He was determined to get off to a strong start. 

"It's important to feel good out there," he said. "I'm happy with how I played."

"He looked super comfortable," agreed Letang. "Just moves so well. He's smart. He plays a play ahead so when the puck comes, he knows when to walk the blue line and when to reset the puck. A couple real nice moves with his feet to get himself out of trouble."

Mateychuk expects to look even more comfortable as he becomes more familiar with 6-foot-7 partner Maveric Lamoureux. 

"There's some situations where you kind of get tight to each other and you just got to space that out," Mateychuk said. "Playing with a new guy, you don't really get those looks in practice too much, so you have to play in a game to get that chemistry."

"He's intelligent," noted Lamoureux, an Arizona Coyotes prospect, who plays for the Drummondville Voltigeurs. "He's so good with the puck. He's quick too so I feel we'll complement each other really good as a D pair."

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Anaheim Ducks defenceman Tristan Luneau, who had been skating on the second pair in practice, missed Tuesday's game due to illness. 

"Just feeling a little under the weather," Letang said. "We have this little bit of a break [in the schedule] where he can get healthy and get some liquids into him."

Luneau, who was loaned to Hockey Canada by the Ducks for the World Juniors, also sat out the selection camp games.  

"I'm actually looking forward to seeing him in a game, because he's looked real good practice," said Letang. 

Canada will play pre-competition games on Friday against Switzerland and Saturday against the United States before opening the tournament on Boxing Day against Finland. 

Luneau last suited up in a game on Dec. 7. He has played the fewest games (13) this season of anyone on Team Canada.  

Bonk, who had been practising as the seventh defenceman, took Luneau's spot beside Jake Furlong. 

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Luneau had been quarterbacking the second power-play unit in practice, so his absence led to a special-teams shuffle. Bonk, who had been working in the bumper spot on the top unit, moved to the top of the second unit. 

"Bonker sees the ice so well and he can make those plays," said Letang. 

"I played the top for a long time," Bonk noted. "When you have four guys that are that calibre, it makes it really easy on you to move the puck around and they make plays for you."

Bonk assisted on a power-play goal by fellow London Knight Easton Cowan in the third period.  

Yager moved into the middle of the top group. Letang also worked with the Pittsburgh Penguins prospect at the 2022 Hlinka Gretzky Cup when Canada won the gold medal. 

"I remember Yags from the Hlinka. He hunts pucks and he jumps to holes," Letang said. "He's not coasting, and he reads the play real well, so I figured he'd be a real good bumper in there and he did that. He jumped into the open, retrieved pucks really well, and that's important. If you don't support the puck everywhere, you know, your power play kind of dies a little bit and he did a real nice job of getting into those areas."

Canada's top unit also scored on Tuesday with Minten converting on a nice seam pass from Celebrini.  

"It was great," Celebrini said. "We snapped it around pretty well and had a couple chances. Obviously, Fraser buried one there at the end. I felt good. It will only keep getting better from here. I'm looking forward to where it goes."

Canada finished the night two for three. 

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At the end of practices, the forwards have taken turns showing off their breakaway moves. Who is standing out? 

"Celebrini," said Mooseheads goalie Mathis Rousseau, who stopped all six shots he faced in the first half of Tuesday's game. 

"I'll say Celebrini," echoed Sherbrooke Phoenix goalie Samuel St-Hilaire, who stopped all nine shots he faced in the second half of Tuesday's tilt. "He's got pretty good hands. We never know what he's going to do, so it's tough to read."

Celebrini was also a popular pick amongst his fellow forwards. 

"Mack, obviously, he's got some pretty crazy skill," Wenatchee Wild centre Conor Geekie said. 

"Probably Mack," agreed Yager. "He's been doing some pretty creative stuff. You guys have gotten videos of it. He's a creative guy and pretty special."

The other player who is raising eyebrows also plies his trade in the NCAA. If Canada ends up in a shootout at some point, don't be surprised if University of Connecticut winger Matthew Wood gets tapped on the shoulder. 

"Wood is a little sneaky," said Rousseau. "He doesn't look like he's doing much, and he gets us."

"I don't know what he does but he scores every time," said Geekie. 

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Seabrook has taken the ice for a couple of practices with the team. 

"I brought my skates hoping they'd ask," the three-time Stanley Cup champion said with a smile. "They asked the other day, so it was pretty cool to get out there and be around the players and answer the questions they had. I'm getting more comfortable with them, so hopefully I can help them out as much as I can and just be around."

"I'm glad he could get out here and be with their D and show them the little details of playing the game," said Letang. "He's got so much experience. He's got a great rapport with everybody."

Seabrook suited up in 1,114 NHL games plus 123 more in the playoffs. A hip injury forced him to stop playing. He last suited up in December 2019. 

"Watching the skill level here, these guys are all way more skilled than I ever was, so I don't know how much I can help them," Seabrook said. "Playing defence was something that I thought I was pretty good at, so if I can help them in that sense and help them with positioning and certain things then that's what I'm here for."

"Having a Stanley Cup champion with us on the ice, you can learn so much from him," Lamoureux gushed. "He was telling us little tips, little fakes and deception and stuff. You are always going to listen to him very carefully when he talks."

Seabrook can provide insight on what it takes to win. An Olympic champion in 2010, he also played at two World Juniors taking home a silver medal in 2004 in Finland and a gold medal in 2005 in North Dakota. 

"I've had a lot of great experiences and I still think today North Dakota was one of my top-five experiences in hockey," the 38-year-old said.

That 2005 Canadian team, which went undefeated, benefitted from the NHL lockout and featured players like Sidney Crosby, Patrice Bergeron, Ryan Getzlaf, Jeff Carter, Andrew Ladd, Corey Perry, Shea Weber, Dion Phaneuf and Mike Richards. 

"Just a special group, but at the same time we were there to win a gold medal," Seabrook recalled. "Guys played up and down the lineup. Some guys were playing five minutes, some guys were playing 20 minutes, and everybody bought in and played to their role and did a great job, so I think that's what, ultimately, helped us win."

Seabrook suffered a heartbreaking loss in 2004 when Canada blew a 3-1 third-period lead to the United States in the gold-medal game. What did he learn? 

"That was a tough one," he said with a sigh. "It's just momentum. They got one and then it seemed like they got two and three and the game was out of reach for us. Momentum is such a big thing in the game of hockey ... in a short tournament like this every little play is magnified that much more and you just really got to stick with the game plan and play as a team." 

Seabrook has his World Junior gold medal proudly on display back home. He's not sure where the silver medal is. 

After the final cuts were made last week, Seabrook addressed this year's Team Canada and shared some lessons learned during his decorated career. 

"One thing he said in our meeting is it's not the best player in the world that wins the tournament, it's the best team," Yager revealed. "And that's one thing that's stuck with me so far is just making sure we're playing as best we can as a team and not as a bunch of individuals."

Seabrook has been sitting in on meetings with the coaching staff and the management team. He's still not 100 per cent sure what he wants to do in hockey moving forward. 

"I thought maybe after retirement I wanted to get into management stuff and then I coached that CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game last year and I had a blast being on the bench and being around those players, so I don't know," he said. "I'm learning. I'm trying to learn as much as I can. I love the game. I just want to be around it and being here in an environment like this, with all these great players and people working for the team, it's been really cool."

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Team Canada lines in Tuesday's game: 

Cowan - Geekie - Savoie

Minten - Celebrini - Dumais

Rehkopf - Yager - Wood

Allard - Beck - Danielson

Mateychuk - Lamoureux

Furlong - Bonk

Molendyk - Warren

Rousseau 

St-Hilaire

Did not dress: Poitras (rest), Luneau (sick), Ratzlaff

Team Canada power-play units in Tuesday's game: 

QB: Mateychuk 

Flanks: Celebrini, Minten 

Middle: Yager 

Net front: Geekie 

QB: Bonk 

Flanks: Dumais, Savoie 

Middle: Wood

Net front: Cowan 

Team Canada penalty-kill units in Tuesday's game: 

Danielson - Beck 

Warren - Furlong 

Minten - Allard 

Mateychuk - Lamoureux 

Yager - Cowan 

Warren - Molendyk 

Geekie - Savoie