SAN JOSE -– You could read quotes from coach Pete DeBoer and several of Logan Couture’s teammates about how much having the All-Star center back in the lineup has helped the club.
(Be patient. We’ll get to that a little further down.)
To see the impact that having a healthy Couture has done for the Sharks, though, you need only review just a few simple and basic numbers.
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In the 15 games that Couture has played, the team is 10-3-2. It scores an average of 3.33 goals-per game and gives up an even 2.00 per game.
In the other 30 games that Couture was out while dealing with a fractured right fibula and later internal bleeding in his right thigh, the Sharks are 14-15-1, scoring 2.60 goals-per game while giving up an inflated 3.03.
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Remarkably, that’s about three-quarters of a goal more and a full goal-against less with the 26-year-old in the lineup.
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Although he’s still working his way back into form since returning on Dec. 30, there’s no debating that having Couture again has been the biggest key to the Sharks’ current seven-game point streak (6-0-1), their longest since March, 2014.
“I don’t think it’s an accident. He’s a very important piece here, and I think the more comfortable he gets [and] the more up to speed he gets, the better team we are,” DeBoer said. ”When he’s in the lineup, we can spread our depth around a little bit. We’re a much more dangerous team. We’re just a better team.”
In the first three games this season, all Sharks wins by a combined score of 12-1, the element to their game that stood out above all else was that just about everyone found a way to get on the scoresheet. No fewer than 15 players had at least one point.
To say that part of their game fell off without Couture is an understatement, as guys like Chris Tierney, Matt Nieto, Tommy Wingels and Tomas Hertl all went through extreme droughts for the next several months that they’ve only recently started to break out of. Hertl wasn’t ready to take over Couture's minutes at center, and the bottom six forwards, in particular, just weren’t producing.
They are now, along with Couture’s recent new linemate Joonas Donskoi, as the team is dressing a more balanced forward group featuring Couture, Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau down the middle on the top three lines. On Thursday in Arizona, for example, it was Wingels and Tierney scoring the only two goals in a manned net in a 3-1 Sharks win.
That scoring depth has reappeared, helping the Sharks to 27 goals in their last seven games.
Joel Ward said: “You could tell when we had him in the lineup at the beginning, a lot of guys were chipping in and were creating a lot of plays. … Since he’s been back, we’ve definitely been playing a lot better team game.”
Couture saw plenty of the Sharks from his couch and in the press box when he was out. Now that he’s back, what’s his perspective of the recent success?
“A lot of confidence in our game right now,” he said. “Confidence in all four lines, and all six defensemen. I think everyone is contributing. … We’re playing our system. [Martin Jones] is making big saves. Everything you need for a hockey team to be successful is going on.”
Couture’s injury during practice at the Prudential Center in New Jersey on Oct. 15 threw a huge monkey wrench into a team that was still trying to adjust to a new coach, while trying to put a miserable 2014-15 season behind it. While the Sharks reeled off six straight road wins on a trip from Nov. 13-21, they also went through a stretch of just three wins in 11 games immediately preceding the road sweep, followed by a six-game losing streak from Dec. 1-12 (0-5-1).
DeBoer indicated more than once that not having Couture was a big reason the club couldn’t win consistently.
“Not that I’m happy we went through what we did, but I think we definitely had to lay a foundation for how we wanted to play in order to be able to try and keep our heads above water,” he said.
The weak Pacific Division helped, too, and although the Kings still have a 10-point lead on everyone else, the Sharks find themselves in a good position to lock down one of the three automatic playoff spots.
As long as they don’t lose any more key pieces for an extended period of time, that is. Especially Couture, it would seem.
“I think the team has got some pretty good depth at the moment,” Couture said.