Macklin Celebrini and the Sharks are ready to enter contender stage

Macklin Celebrini and the Sharks are ready to enter contender stage JOSH DUBOW SAN JOSE, CALIF. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PUBLISHED YESTERDAY Open this photo in gallery: San Jose Sharks centre Macklin Celebrini (71) drives the puck as Vancouver Canucks left wing Liam Ohgren (92) defends during their game in San Jose this past season. STEPHEN LAM/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS COMMENTS SHARE SAVE FOR LATER Listen to this article Learn more about audio Log in or create a free account to listen to this article. Macklin Celebrini and the San Jose Sharks are entering a new phase after a tear down and rebuild led to seven straight seasons without a playoff berth. With one of the game’s top young stars leading the way, the anticipation for this season is high and Celebrini sees it almost everywhere he goes around the Bay Area from taking batting practice before a recent San Francisco Giants game to his day-to-day life. “It’s pretty cool walking around, talking to people, people coming up to us on the street just saying how excited they are about the season,” Celebrini said Thursday on the first day of training camp. “We didn’t really get that the last couple of years, so it’s cool to see the excitement from the fans.” It comes with good reason. The 20-year-old Celebrini is coming off one of the best seasons ever for a player so young, ranking fourth in the league in scoring, starring in the Olympics and then signing a five-year, US$94-million extension this summer. Celebrini is the leader of a young core in San Jose that fought its way into playoff contention last spring before falling four points short and now knows that making the postseason for the first time since 2019 is the standard this season. He welcomes the scrutiny. “You’d rather have expectations and want to win and kind of be fighting for it every night instead of looking to the next couple years,” Celebrini said. “That’s where the focus has shifted for our group this year and kind of taking the steps necessary to make the playoffs and have that experience.” General manager Mike Grier reinforced the roster this summer, adding veteran defencemen Darnell Nurse, Jacob Trouba and Michael Kesserling, along with forward Mason Marchment to give a young roster some playoff-tested grit. The group of youngsters is led by Celebrini, housemate Will Smith, forwards Michael Misa and Igor Chernyshov, and defenceman Sam Dickinson. San Jose also added three first-round picks in June, including Swedish winger Ivar…