Logan Couture mentioned it himself: he’s not getting any youthful.
So it’s particularly irritating for the captain – a Sharks lifer and one of many organizations’ all-time clutch playoff performers – to not be part of the postseason for a 3rd straight 12 months.
“It’s not what you count on coming right into a hockey season,” Couture, 33, mentioned Thursday evening after the Sharks’ 5-4 shootout loss to the Chicago Blackhawks, a consequence that formally knocked them out of playoff competition.
“You count on to be within the playoffs, you count on to play for the Stanley Cup and I take a look at it this manner: it’s one much less 12 months that you've got an opportunity to win it. I’m getting older, so it hurts increasingly more every year.”
This marks the primary time in franchise historical past the Sharks (29-33-11) have been out of the playoffs for a 3rd straight season.
It didn’t occur within the earliest days of the franchise 30 years in the past after two tough seasons on the Cow Palace, earlier than the Sharks loved an enormous turnaround of their first season in what was then San Jose Enviornment. Nor did it occur a couple of years later when the Sharks had 4 head coaches in three seasons.
However that’s the fact the Sharks are coping with proper now and sadly for them and the crew’s fanbase, it wasn’t essentially that tough to foretell.
The Sharks made notable strikes final summer time after a turbulent 2020-2021 season to assist enhance the crew’s tradition, their woeful goaltending and their two-way play up-front.
At goalie, James Reimer was signed as a free agent and Adin Hill was acquired for a 2022 second-round draft choose. Nick Bonino was signed to shore up the crew’s middle depth and Andrew Cogliano was introduced in as an skilled bottom-six ahead and a penalty killer extraordinaire.
All 4 gamers had been also referred to as high quality locker room guys, with Reimer, Bonino and Cogliano, specifically, including precious management.
That was vital after some members of the Sharks had a falling out with final 12 months’s main scorer, and Most worthy participant, Evander Kane, who remained away from the crew in coaching camp as he was being investigated by the NHL.
Some Sharks gamers reportedly advised administration in exit interviews that they now not needed Kane on the crew.
Kane by no means performed one other NHL recreation in teal. In October, he was suspended for 21 video games for submitting a faux vaccine card and in November, he was positioned on waivers by the Sharks when his suspension ended and was assigned to their AHL affiliate.
Kane was positioned on unconditional waivers in January and had his contract terminated for what the Sharks mentioned was a breach of his deal and a violation of AHL COVID-19 protocol. The NHL Gamers’ Affiliation shortly filed a grievance on Kane’s behalf.
However whereas Kane was out of the Sharks’ hair – enhancing the vibe within the room, in line with the crew’s gamers – his precious on-ice manufacturing was by no means changed. Predictably, a Sharks crew that was already missing scoring depth shortly found that it had little room for error when it got here to profitable video games.
These roster holes grew to become all too obvious because the crew needed to play via a COVID outbreak, and later skilled accidents to Erik Karlsson, Mario Ferraro, Kevin Labanc and Rudolfs Balcers, amongst others.
The Sharks lead the NHL in video games performed by rookies, and at occasions, that inexperience confirmed.
“Quite a lot of groups take care of loads of points. Clearly, the largest situation for us was shedding our most offensive participant on a crew that was already going into the summer time ravenous for targets, figuring out that that was going to be a weak spot. In order that harm,” Sharks coach Bob Boughner mentioned.
“Guys had been enjoying exhausting and being within the combat proper till the center of the season. We bumped into a couple of month and a half the place we had, at occasions, seven, eight, 9 veterans out of the lineup, and you may see that’s the place the season turned for the more severe for us.”
The Sharks went 5-6-2 in January and had the Western Convention’s Eleventh-best factors share by the all-star break in early February. They got here out of the break with a 2-5-2 report, primarily sealing their destiny as a non-playoff crew.
The Sharks proper now are averaging 2.58 targets per recreation, which, going into Friday, ranked twenty eighth within the NHL.
“In case you’re behind the race after Christmas, clearly, statistically, it’s not a great signal and we simply couldn’t keep wholesome,” Boughner mentioned. “Once we (had been), we battled, we performed exhausting, we had been in loads of video games. On the finish of the day, the issue that we thought going into the season is the issue we’re sitting right here with proper now.”
So the Sharks are again within the all-too-familiar place of attempting to play spoilers down the stretch. Now on an 0-5-3 slide, they end their highway journey with video games in opposition to Dallas and Minnesota on Saturday and Sunday, respectively, and play seven video games in 11 days to complete the common season.
Couture famous the Sharks nonetheless have issues to play for, particularly with a brand new normal supervisor coming in sooner or later within the offseason. He simply hopes that is the final time he and his teammates are on this place.
“We’ve bought to play exhausting and play for one another,” Couture mentioned. “Undoubtedly pleased with the best way that we’ve come collectively in that locker room. It’s a really tight room. Guys sticking up for one another all around the ice. Having enjoyable enjoying collectively. So positively having fun with that this 12 months. Would like to see it end in extra wins.”