Logan Couture’s 2015-16 season got off to a wretched start.
He was injured in practice after just three games in October. It was then revealed he actually suffered a broken fibula and, at the time, was expected to miss four to six weeks. He ended up missing 23 games. So, yeah, that’s a miserable beginning to the season, as the Sharks hoped to rebound from missing the 2015 playoffs.
Two games after returning to the lineup in December, Couture was again sidelined with a “small arterial bleed” after suffering what was initially suspected to be another lower-body injury.
Despite a difficult three months to begin the season, Couture has been playing his best hockey in these playoffs.
He leads all players with 17 points in 12 games in these playoffs. And the Sharks have earned a spot in the Western Conference Final against the St. Louis Blues, after exorcising demons against the L.A. Kings in the opening round and beating the Nashville Predators in a hard-fought seven-game series in the second round.
“He was outstanding. He’s just getting better. … I can’t underestimate how traumatic an injury he dealt with in the first half of the year. Everyone saw how much we missed him,” Sharks head coach Pete DeBoer told CSN Bay Area.
“To get him back now, he’s fresh, obviously. He’s getting back to 100 percent, and we’re seeing the season he maybe could have had had he been healthy all year. He’s an elite player.”
Related: Sharks’ Marleau: ‘These opportunities don’t come along every year’