Ever since they were put on the same line for Canada’s first game of the 2025 IIHF World Championship, hockey fans were excited to see what kind of magic Sidney Crosby and Macklin Celebrini – the NHL’s first overall draft picks in 2005 and 2024, respectively – could create together.
The pair put on quite a display in Saturday’s 7-0 win over Slovakia, with Crosby recording four points and Celebrini three, each setting up the other for a goal.
“Hopefully it gets better with each game,” Crosby said about his chemistry with Celebrini in an interview with Slovak television after the game. “He’s really good at holding onto the puck – you saw the pass he made on the goal – that was behind-the-back, wide open … Those are nice.
“Maybe I can return the favor, but he’s really fun to play with. He’s got young legs, he skates well, and yeah, we’re just trying to get better.”
Crosby and Celebrini connected twice in the game, but it’s the second one Crosby was referring to, which made it 3-0 early in the second period.
“The more you get to play with someone, the better you feel, and you can read your linemates’ games better,” Celebrini said Monday morning after practise, accoriding to Jatkoaika. “Me, TK (Travis Konecny) and Sid (Crosby) have played together for most of the tournament.”
Celebrini played with Konecny during Canada’s pre-tournament games but admitted to being nervous when paired with Crosby and Adam Fantilli in the tournament-opener against Slovenia.
“At first I called him Mr. Crosby, but he immediately corrected me that he was Sid,” Celebrini smiled, according to Slovak media outlet Denník Šport.
“I’m really enjoying being here. We’re getting better. It’s still unbelievable to me that I get to play on a line with Sidney Crosby, but when we’re on the ice, we’re just teammates. It’s the same game we played as kids and we love it.”
Nathan MacKinnon On Sidney Crosby, Gabriel Landeskog
Nathan
MacKinnon is, not surprisingly, one of the most popular targets for
interviews among journalists covering the 2025 IIHF World
Championship Group B in Stockholm. <i>The Hockey News</i>’
<a href="https://thehockeynews.com/news/latest-news/definitely-miss-him-avalanches-mackinnon-reflects-on-the-rantanen-trade-in-sweden">Remy
Mastey spoke to him before Canada’s first game of the tournament</a>,
with the memories of the Game 7 loss to the <a href="http://thn.com/dallas">Dallas
Stars</a> and Mikko Rantanen’s amazing performance still fresh in
his and everybody’s minds.
Crosby, Celebrini, and the rest of the Canadian team have so far overrun their first five opponents, collectively outscoring them 28-2. That’s on pace for a greater differential than the 66-15 that the Canadian team in 2015 – the last time Crosby played in the Worlds – accomplished. That’s also the last team to finish the World Championship with a perfect 10-0 record.
However, this year’s Canadian team has yet to play any of the consensus top hockey nations. That’s about to change as Canada faces Finland on Monday and Sweden on Tuesday to close out the group stage. And then the games get really important after that.
“Finland, that’ll be a tough one,” said Crosby. “They’re really structured, they play well as a team, and obviously Sweden being at home – seeing their lineup, they’ve got a lot of dangerous players. Two big challenges and that’s something that we’ve been building our game towards, so we’ll see how we fare.”
“Tonight and in the next game we face a couple of tests. I think it’ll be great,” Celebrini agreed. “We’ve done some advance scouting of the Finnish team. They’re a good team and shouldn’t be underestimated.”
Dalibor Dvorský Was A Healthy Scratch Against Latvia; Slovak Coach Explains
On
Sunday, Slovakia’s chances of advancing to the IIHF World
Championship quarterfinals were dealt a fatal blow when the
team lost 5-1 to Latvia.