{"id":245446,"date":"2026-03-31T18:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T18:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/245446\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T18:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T18:42:08","slug":"san-jose-sharks-macklin-celebrini-now-seeing-bigger-crowds-at-sap-center-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/245446\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose Sharks, Macklin Celebrini now seeing bigger crowds at SAP Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE \u2013 The San Jose Sharks have talked for months, if not years,<\/a> about trying to return SAP Center to where it was several years ago, when the team won a ton of games, and the building was always rocking.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sharks now have what they want<\/a>, right as they enter a make-or-break homestand and their playoff hopes hang in the balance.<\/p>\n

The Sharks host the Pacific Division-leading Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday, looking to build on their last-minute, 5-4 win<\/a> over the St. Louis Blues on Monday before a delirious announced crowd of 16,031 at the west downtown arena, which has a seating capacity of 17,435 for hockey games.<\/p>\n

Adam Gaudette scored a go-ahead goal with 21 seconds left in the third period, as his shot found the five-hole on Blues goalie Joel Hofer and slowly slid over the goal line as the Sharks began their six-game homestand with another important victory.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the first time in seven years the Sharks have played meaningful games this late in the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis building is alive. There\u2019s great energy in here. You could feel it,\u201d Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. \u201cIt felt like the roof was going to pop off when (Gaudette) put that goal in.\u201d<\/p>\n

The crowd was keenly aware, too, that when Macklin Celebrini scored his 37th goal of the season at the 13:25 mark of the first period on a San Jose power play, it also represented his 100th point this year.<\/a> It\u2019s a milestone no Shark player has accomplished during a home game; both Joe Thornton in 2007 and Erik Karlsson in 2022 reached the century mark in points during games on the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur fan base has been amazing all year,\u201d Celebrini said. \u201cThey\u2019ve really shown out and showed their support and been loud every night. So hopefully they keep coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sharks had announced sellouts for their previous 11 home games before Monday, a streak that began on Jan. 10. The Sharks were 5-4-2 in those games and are now 18-12-5 at home this season \u2013 their best points percentage (.586) in their rink since going 25-11-5 at SAP in 2018-19, the last year they made the playoffs.<\/p>\n

The Sharks\u2019 average paid attendance this season is 16,143, up from the 14,219 average<\/a> of last season, when San Jose\u2019s home record was a dismal 12-27-2.<\/p>\n

The Sharks have now had seven home games on Monday or Tuesday nights this season, and only two of those games had a larger announced attendance than the win over St. Louis \u2013 the Jan. 6 game against Columbus and the March 3 game against Montreal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could feel it really a lot after the Olympic break,\u201d Warsofsky said. \u201cYou can sense it around the area and where I live, especially. But it\u2019s special. It\u2019s a special place. It\u2019s a special environment. It\u2019s a hard place to play, and we want to continue to make that energy come alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

San Jose enters Tuesday in a tie for 10th place<\/a> in the Western Conference with the Seattle Kraken. Both teams have 75 points, two more than the Blues and now two fewer than the Nashville Predators, who hold the second wild card spot in the West.<\/p>\n

The Sharks and Kraken are also one point behind the Los Angeles Kings. San Jose has one game in hand on the Kings and two on the Predators.<\/p>\n

Whether or not the Sharks reach the postseason will largely depend on how they fare at SAP Center. For the last six years, late-season home games haven\u2019t really mattered, as the Sharks were always well out of the playoff picture. Now they\u2019re in the mix, and these games are taking on extra significance.<\/p>\n

After Wednesday, the Sharks host the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday, the Predators on Saturday, the Chicago Blackhawks next Monday, and the Edmonton Oilers on April 8. It appears those games are not yet close to selling out.<\/p>\n

The only other Sharks home game is on April 11 against the Vancouver Canucks. San Jose\u2019s four other games are on the road, including a three-game trip to finish the regular season with stops in Nashville, Chicago, and Winnipeg.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019ll help a lot,\u201d Gaudette said of playing at home. \u201cEspecially with how excited the crowd is and how much they\u2019re getting into it, and the support they\u2019re showing. We feed off that for sure.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great when we have the momentum swings, or if we don\u2019t have it, the crowd can help us get it back. It\u2019s been a lot of fun playing in front of them, and we\u2019re excited for more games to come.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2013 The San Jose Sharks have talked for months, if not years, about trying to return…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[7,404,88,90,89,98,127],"class_list":["post-245446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-california","tag-nhl","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-san-jose-sharks","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}