Actors and NHL Stars: The Protocol of Performance Under Pressure

Belmont Cameli, star of Prime Video's Off Campus, and Macklin Celebrini, the San Jose Sharks' franchise center, operate in different arenas. One performs for cameras on a Vancouver set. The other performs for 17,000 fans at SAP Center. Yet their conversation reveals a shared architecture: identical training protocols, parallel pressures, and a common code for handling external noise.

Both are executing high-stakes contracts in their respective systems. Cameli, 28, plays college hockey star Garrett Graham in the breakout series, a role that has recalibrated his career trajectory. Celebrini, 20, recently signed a five-year, $94 million extension, the largest in league history at the time of signing. A one-of-a-kind version of his rookie trading card sold for $1.28 million at auction.

What do an actor and an NHL star have in common?

More than either expected. They share a skating coach, Barb Underhill, who trained Cameli for a two-week boot camp in March. They share mutual connections, including defenseman Vincent Iorio. And they share a fundamental question: how do you sustain peak performance when every move is logged, analyzed, and critiqued?

Celebrini's answer is selective memory. After losing the Olympic gold medal game to the U.S., he has not watched the game back.