Honestly, I donāt believe in curses and I am absolutely certain that Mackās time will come. Heās still so young and it was only his second nhl season.
But boy, do I feel for him because what must it be like to be the best player on basically every team youāve ever played on, to get all the individual recognition and awards (Hobey Baker, Olympic All Star Team, Ted Lindsay finalist, half a dozen Player of the Game awards at Worlds⦠the list goes on) and yet youāve never been able to win with your team.
You can want it sooo much, give it your all, push yourself to the very limits and it is still never enough because in the end hockey is a team sport.
How must that feel? To see guys around you, guys who (no offense) arenāt half as good as you, get what youāve always wanted? Is it worth it? Would he trade an award, being considered generational, for a gold medal? His name atop the leaderboards for a footnote under the victory?
In the end it doesnāt matter. Because when the time comes it will be his name lit up in the sky, his legacy etched in the history books. Players win all the time, good players and players whose names will soon be forgotten. But when Macklin Celebrini finally wins? Oh you can be sure the world will remember it!
yeah, weāre all really (understandably) sad right now, but mack is such an incredible player and is on one of the best up-and-coming teams in the league, so heāll have a gazillion chances at the top
i think the curse narrative hurts more now because of how connor mcdavid loved mack and took him under his wing pretty much from the moment he met him, probably saw himself in mack, the bright-eyed, hockey-loving young kid under so much pressure, better than all his peers but weighed down by poor rosters, bad luck, and crippling expectations. the sharks wonāt follow the oilersā trajectory and i donāt actually believe in curses either, but the parallels in how davo and mack both hurt just make it even more painful, because they deserve so much more than theyāve gotten, and you just know theyād trade all their individual medals and awards and accolades if they could just help their teams win
in the meantime, mack had a record-breaking sophomore season, earned the respect and admiration of pretty much everyone in hockey, and got to be revered as canadaās princess (twice!) and play with all his childhood idols. next season, heāll take the league even more by storm, and i expect the rest of the babysharks to make their mark, too. step by step. i have full faith in mack and our team. weāll cry for a day, and then look forward to the next


















