Macklin Celebrini stripped the red wings of any remaining dignity

The California road trip isn’t what it used to be. About a decade ago, a team traveling from the East into the Golden State would have to duel three Cup contenders in quick succession: Los Angeles, Anaheim and San Jose. But now, with both the Ducks and Sharks struggling through extended rebuilds and the Kings without a playoff series win since 2014, the trip’s most feared enemy is jet lag. Nevertheless, the Detroit Red Wings still spent a long weekend finding a way to lose all three meetings, plunging themselves into a precarious early season position that already threatens to extend their postseason drought to nine years.

The Ducks game to open the trip was the most frustrating as a 3-1 Detroit lead near the end of the second evaporated into a 6-4 defeat. In back-to-backs against the Kings, head coach Derek Lalonde’s boys fell asleep to a 4-1 loss. In San Jose on Monday, the team salvaged a point thanks to an effective power play that helped send the game to overtime, but still left the building as losers due to the No. 1 overall pick. 1, Macklin Celebrini’s three-on-three knockout punch.

It was a different young shark, William Eklund, who picked up his team with a pair of goals to keep up with the Wings in the first half of the game. (The other one came out pretty ugly Cam Talbot botch in net.) But after the talented Red Wings trio of Dylan Larkin, Lucas Raymond and Alex DeBrincat orchestrated a five-on-four tie with two minutes left in the third, Celebrini stepped into the spotlight.

Into a line change while San Jose kept possession behind their own net, the 18-year-old skated behind Mikael Granlund as the elder Shark brought the puck all the way to the O-zone before feeding it to the speedy prodigy on the far left. Detroit had no hope of stopping him. Patrick Kane was picked off by Granlund and could only swipe the puck weakly. Simon Edvinsson covered the other half of the ice and was too slow to get over. And DeBrincat, getting the worst of it, whipped out a poke check as Celebrini maneuvered around him like roadkill. The close range shot was perfectly placed outside Talbot’s padding and in.

The Sharks are 6-10-4 and remain defensively compromised, but their fans can take a win like this, fueled by Eklund and Celebrini, as a harbinger of better times for the franchise to come. Red Wings fans, on the other hand, are starting to think about who will coach the team next, as their 7-9-2 record ranks behind only Pittsburgh and Montreal in the East.

It’s not the slow start really at Lalonde. Detroit’s roster took a definite step back after losing a close game for the eighth seed last spring. The priority this summer was to sign cornerstones Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond to long-term extensions, and in doing so while remaining under the cap, the Wings had to shed assets. With significant veteran signings from GM Steve Yzerman like Andrew Copp, JT Compher and Ben Chiarot continuing to hinder the team, the Wings banked on either a jump in goaltending efficiency or exciting player development just to stay afloat. On the first front, Talbot has been solid, but still not enough. For the youngsters, 21-year-old defender Edvinsson is a bright spot as a big man with skill who knows how to use his body to his advantage, but even his job has been simply to close the gap after Shayne. Gostisbehere’s exit.

Everything the Red Wings are doing right now feels like bailing buckets of water out of a leaking rowboat. And I suppose when a team’s situation gets this bleak, it means it’s time for the coach. Even if Lalonde is traded for another guy in a suit, Detroit’s problems won’t go away. This is simply not a good enough lineup to hang with the rest of the division. It couldn’t even handle California.