All eyes were on young stars Macklin Celebrini and Connor Bedard in Monday’s game between the San Jose Sharks and Chicago Blackhawks, and the hockey world nearly got an unexpected twist in their budding rivalry.
During one moment in the contest at the United Center in Chicago, Ill., Bedard was heard on the broadcast seemingly trying to challenge Celebrini into a fight.
The Blackhawks star was joking, of course, but Celebrini went with it anyway.
“Where [are] you going?” Bedard asked Celebrini, who responded by saying, “Let’s go.”
“You want one?” Bedard replied, as Celebrini told him, “center ice.”
Here’s a video of the exchange between two of the league’s brightest young stars.
"You want one?" – Connor Bedard to Macklin Celebrini 🎙️😂 pic.twitter.com/u35VQsHF3Q
— NHL (@NHL) February 3, 2026
One can just imagine the insane buzz that Celebrini and Bedard would have generated if they decided to drop the gloves and take haymakers at each other – just like what goalies Andrei Vasilevskiy and Jeremy Swayman did on Sunday.
As for the game itself, Bedard and the Blackhawks came away with a 6-3 win.
Bedard opened up the scoring in the contest with a power-play goal in the first period. The Blackhawks then scored four consecutive goals in the second frame before the Sharks got to light the lamp on a Will Smith goal, assisted by Celebrini and Collin Graf.
Celebrini found the back of the net with less than five minutes left in the second period, but the Blackhawks weathered San Jose’s comeback attempts the rest of the way to snap a five-game losing skid and improve to 22-25-9. The Sharks, on the other hand, lost their third straight outing and dropped to 27-23-4.
