CHICAGO\u2014 I\u2019ll be the first reporter to admit it: I need to ask Macklin Celebrini and Connor Bedard better questions.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s striking how similar their answers were to similar questions over the last two days.<\/p>\n
Do the 2024 and 2025 No. 1 picks, also North Vancouver friends, have any more excitement than usual for Monday\u2019s San Jose Sharks-Chicago Blackhawks showdown, their first game against each other this season?<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s Blackhawks vs. Sharks. I don\u2019t think either of us really look at that, if you asked him the same thing,\u201d Bedard said. \u201cLooking forward to seeing him off the ice, saying hi, but just another game.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTonight, we don\u2019t need to get up any more than we already need to for other reasons,\u201d Celebrini said of the San Jose Sharks\u2019 playoff chase. \u201cObviously, a good friend and kind of grew up in the same area. Played on the same team for a year. It\u2019ll be a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Famously, Celebrini and Bedard practiced in North Vancouver together this past summer. How was that?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s obviously [good] having a guy like that in the summers to battle against and pick some things out from. Pretty special talent in what he does,\u201d Celebrini said. \u201cBeing able to take something from him and apply it to my game has definitely helped me in the summers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s fun to compete against great players and just see what guys do in the summer and how they approach everything,\u201d Bedard said.<\/p>\n
What did they learn, specifically, from each other over the summer?<\/p>\n
\u201cHis attention to what he was doing, and the purpose of his plan over the summer and how we approached the summer\u2026 he thought a lot about it. It shows, just the stuff that he put into it, the work and the effort that he put into it,\u201d Celebrini said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis commitment to the game and to getting better and stuff,\u201d Bedard said. \u201cNone of this is by accident. How great he is. He puts in the time and the work and really doesn\u2019t cheat it. He is coming in everyday and trying to get better. It\u2019s always nice to see great players, but when you get to see the process of that, it\u2019s always fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Celebrini did add: \u201cWe\u2019ll ask each other what we\u2019re doing and see if some of the things maybe the other guy\u2019s doing [that] we\u2019re missing. Or maybe just bounce ideas off [each other], but not too much.\u201d<\/p>\n
Celebrini said he doesn\u2019t hide anything about his preparation from his perhaps future Western Conference Finals rival.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
How about handling the attention that comes from being a teen prodigy?<\/p>\n
This is something that the Blackhawks superstar has been dealing with for longer than his San Jose Sharks\u2019 counterpart: Bedard was interviewed by The Hockey News when he was 12, whereas Celebrini didn\u2019t really start getting a lot of outside attention until he was 16, when he dominated the USHL with the Chicago Steel.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had that pin on him when he was a kid: The next big thing, or the next great prospect. I don\u2019t know how he dealt with it when he was 12, 13, 14,\u201d Celebrini said. \u201cJust trying to figure it all out and having people talk about him like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Did Bedard ever have any advice for Celebrini, for how to deal with the buzz?<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe right when he got drafted, like a tiny bit, but not really,\u201d Bedard said.<\/p>\n
And their praise for how each other handles the spotlight will sound familiar.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re both focused on the right things, and he handles himself very well. He\u2019s just worried about his game and helping his team win and he\u2019s not thinking about the extracurricular stuff,\u201d Bedard said. \u201cIt\u2019s not something we\u2019ve talked about too much.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s done obviously an amazing job to get where he is,\u201d Celebrini said. \u201cHe knows how to handle it, and he\u2019s obviously having a great year.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just playing hockey, coming to the rink everyday and having fun,\u201d Celebrini err Bedard said, \u201cso it\u2019s not something I\u2019m really focused on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finally, what do the young superstars think of the comparisons between them?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good for the game to have that. For us, it doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d Bedard said. \u201cWe\u2019re just playing hockey, trying to be the best version of ourselves, and trying to help our teams win. Stuff like that\u2019s fun for fans and brings interest into the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s obviously good for the league, and good for you guys to debate and have those conversations. We like competing against each other,\u201d Celebrini said. \u201cWe do it in the summers, and I think that\u2019s all it is. We just like battling, and I don\u2019t think either of us compare each other to the other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bedard added: \u201cI\u2019m rooting for him to do well. We\u2019re both our own people, our own players. I work on my game, I\u2019m not comparing myself too much to other guys. Like I said, I\u2019m rooting for him to be great. And I\u2019m trying to be the best version of myself.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO\u2014 I\u2019ll be the first reporter to admit it: I need to ask Macklin Celebrini and Connor Bedard…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[4824,96105,831,4272,385,835,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-446514","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-chicago-blackhawks","9":"tag-connor-bedard","10":"tag-featured","11":"tag-macklin-celebrini","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-san-jose-sharks","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}