The Sharks took an emotional day and used it to their advantage against one of the NHL's best teams.
A busy trade deadline for the Sharks on Monday was followed up by a thrilling 4-3 win over the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome.
Not only did San Jose beat Calgary on Tuesday night, but the Sharks have now won all three of their matchups against the Pacific Division leaders. Sharks captain Logan Couture joined NBC Sports California's Brodie Brazil and Curtis Brown on the ice, where he was asked if these matchups bring out the best in San Jose.
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"Yeah I don't know about that," Couture said. "They're at the top of the division for a reason, a real good hockey club. I think when we play teams at the top of the division we actually play better hockey, play tight, more structural. I think we defend harder. That game against Colorado we lost by one goal with an empty-netter. We've played these guys tough all year, we've played LA tough all year, Vegas has been tight. When we play the top teams in our division we play them pretty tough. In that sense, yes, but they're a very good hockey team."
The Sharks traded away Andrew Cogliano to the Colorado Avalanche and Jacob Middleton to the Minnesota Wild, rattling San Jose's locker room.
"Tough day yesterday for us," Couture told reporters after the game. "Any time you take two very well-liked guys out of the locker room it kind of sends shockwaves a little bit. We found a way. Guys that got called up played extremely hard."
"You lose two very well-liked guys, one is a veteran that has played 1,200 games, the other is a guy that's battled his way to his league, he's a home-grown guy, a guy that sticks up for teammates. You're going to miss them. We're happy for Andrew and Jake, they both have a chance to win a Stanley Cup. We're going to battle here and see what happens these last 19 games, but there's a good feeling in the locker room right now and we want to build off of it."
With plenty of youth up and down the roster, it was the Sharks' veteran leaders that got it done against the Flames. Both Timo Meier and Couture scored goals, highlighted by the captain's eventual game-winning goal with 8:33 remaining in the third period.
"It's expected, we expect that in this locker room that one of us," Couture said. "At least one of us has to produce on a nightly basis for us to win games. It's as simple as that. We take a lot of that upon ourselves and expect a lot out of ourselves and the team expects a lot out of ourselves. It feels good when you contribute."
"Our big boys have got to be our best players every night," coach Bob Boughner told reporters. "And slowly but surely the young guys are coming, it takes a long time. We're running those iPads up and down the bench all night and trying to talk to guys after every shift and trying to help them out
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"It's important that our big guys lead by example and they all came to play tonight."
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Winners of two straight, the Sharks have another tough matchup with the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday before returning home for one game against the Anaheim Ducks.