Logan Couture After Losing Game 2: “It’s Discouraging, It’s Frustrating”

Logan Couture was playing one of his usual games against the St. Louis Blues last night. Though, when we say “usual,” you do have to realize that that term is not the same for his performances and the ones some other players post.

Against the Blues, Sharks’ center scored twice, but that wasn’t enough for his team to avoid a loss. In the moments when guests from Missouri had a two-goal advantage, Couture struck twice in the span of two minutes and set the Shark Tank on fire.

But the reaction of his teammates was mild, and they simply didn’t follow their best player in these playoffs.

“Even scoring those two goals, I thought we still didn’t show like we had the energy to compete,” Couture said.

The hosts entered the game slowly, and without the aggressiveness, they had in the first match. That was immediately punished by the guests, who were eager to use that kind of opportunity. The Blues are very good hitting the rivals unprepared throughout the entire playoffs, and that could be seen this Monday in San Jose.

Couture’s spark brought the hosts in a solid position, as it happened at the early part of the second. But already until the end of the same period, the lead was once again on Blues’ side.

The 30-year old didn’t hide his feelings after the game, and he was pretty harsh toward himself and the rest of the team.

“And it’s discouraging, it’s frustrating, because we’re going to need everyone here if we’re going to beat these guys, because they’re a very good hockey team.”

Couture is confident that Sharks can do much better, and that last night’s performance wasn’t the true face of this crew. Furthermore, he feels that San Jose hasn’t played a game with 100% of their abilities for a long time. And he includes the series against the Colorado Avalanche there too.

“In my opinion, that wasn’t anywhere near what we’re capable of, and I don’t think we’ve played up to our capabilities in a while now.”

Logan Couture doesn’t think the Sharks have played up to their capability since the Vegas series. pic.twitter.com/0IbiL8nL29

— The Athletic Bay Area (@TheAthleticSF) May 14, 2019

Regarding his contribution on the ice, there isn’t a single flaw or something which could be taken against him. He is the top scorer in the playoffs with 13 goals, one fewer than San Jose’s franchise record, held by Joe Pavelski who netted 14 times during Sharks’ 2016 campaign. Back then Pavelski and the boys lost in the finals to Pittsburgh Penguins. Couture has at least three more games, and the way he plays at the moment, there shouldn’t be any problems when it comes to breaking that record.

But not only that, he currently has 100 playoff points in total, and only two Sharks are ahead. One is Patrick Marleau with 120 points, and the second one is Joe Thornton with 112.

Nobody can stop @Logancouture right now. 🔥🔥🔥 #PlayoffMode pic.twitter.com/SwKihRuksb

— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) May 14, 2019

The series Sharks and Blues are now heading for Saint Louis, and things might get rough for the boys from California. Craig Berube’s guys haven’t played very well at home throughout this postseason, and before this series, they were mentioning that they need to be much better at their Enterprise Center.

They are coming into these two events very motivated and determined to snap that negative row in front of their own crowd. At the moment St. Louis has three wins and four losses playing as a host. On the other side, San Jose is even worse on the road, with two wins and four losses.

We are ahead of two very tough and interesting games, which will no doubt bring a lot of intensity and battle. San Jose can’t allow losing both contests. Peter DeBoer’s guys overcame 1-3 deficit already once in this playoffs, but it would be a miracle to do it twice.

To prevent that from happening, Logan Couture needs to continue playing at this level, but he also needs more help from other teammates.