San Jose Sharks: Logan Couture deserves to win Conn Smythe Trophy

The San Jose Sharks are just two victories away from the Stanley Cup Finals and have reached this point thanks to the stellar play of Logan Couture.

Cooch. Captain Clutch, Logan Clutchure; call him what you’d like. But soon enough, we might just be calling San Jose Sharks star center Logan Couture a Conn Smythe Trophy winner. Or at least, that’s certainly what Sharks fans will be hoping for.

Couture has been outstanding in these 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs so far leading the Sharks to where they are now. Currently leading the Western Conference Finals two games to one, the Sharks powered back from a 3-1 series deficit to defeat the Vegas Golden Knights in Round 1 and outlasted the Colorado Avalanche in seven games in the conference semi-finals.

All the while, Team Teal has been the beneficiary of some extraordinary play from their star alternate captain.

Couture currently leads all skaters with 14 goals and 20 points through 17 games this postseason and it’s not even close. His 20 total points are four more than the next player and no other skater even has a double-digit goal total.

In fact, only three others have more than six goals scored — less than half of Couture’s total. On top of that, Couture’s plus-eight is higher than any player not currently playing for the Boston Bruins.

Simply put, Couture has been incredible. But it’s not as if this is anything new.

The 30-year-old Couture is only the 12th active player with 100 career playoff points and he’s done so in far fewer games than his NHL colleagues. And since 2010, only Alex Ovechkin has more postseason goals than Couture’s 47.

Couture is impressive in the regular season. But he’s dominant in the playoffs.

So far in the St. Louis Blues series, Couture has five goals and we’re just three games in. But simply looking at tallies on a stat sheet don’t tell the whole story. Not only has Couture been scoring goals at a high rate this spring, but his timing has been impeccable.

Once again, Couture managed to score the game-tying goal Wednesday night to send the pivotal Game 3 matchup to overtime where the Sharks would eventually emerge victorious. Given the Sharks poor showings away from SAP Center this postseason, it was a crucial victory and one that could set them up for an eventual Stanley Cup Finals appearance.

This has been a habit for Couture who has had quite the knack for timely goals. With the Sharks trailing 2-0 early in Game 2, Couture rallied back and scored two goals within a span of two minutes to tie the game up and give the team some momentum.

Unfortunately, the team would falter and fall behind once again but that shouldn’t put a damper on Couture’s accomplishments.

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Perhaps his most significant clutch moment of the playoffs thus far came with his two-goal performance in the Sharks’ now-famous Game 7 meeting with the Golden Knights. We all know how the story goes at this point but after falling behind 3-0, the Sharks rallied back following a five-minute major penalty taken by Cody Eakin and scored four unanswered.

Couture would score two of those goals including the very first one as San Jose would go on to win in overtime.

More than anything, though, Couture deserves this award after being essentially cheated out of the trophy only three years ago. Despite leading all scorers with 30 playoff points back in 2016, the Conn Smythe Trophy was awarded to the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Sidney Crosby who totaled just 19 playoff points.

Unfortunately, the winner of the award is almost always on the team that wins the Stanley Cup but there have been instances where the opposite has been true. The most recent occurrence came way back in 2003 when goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere won the award with Anaheim despite his team falling in seven to the New Jersey Devils.

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Ultimately, however, Couture’s path to the award would be much easier if the Sharks do capture their first ever Stanley Cup.

Couture’s main competition for the trophy at the moment is Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask. Rask has been nothing short of phenomenal in net for Boston leading all goaltenders this postseason in save percentage and goals against average.

If the Sharks and Bruins both make the Stanley Cup Finals, it might just come down to which team comes out on top to determine the ultimate winner of the award.

But for now, Couture and the San Jose Sharks must focus their attention on holding their slim series lead over the Blues before they start thinking about any shiny new hardware. If the Sharks could find a way to win Game 4 on Friday night, they would find themselves in an excellent position to secure a Stanley Cup berth heading home up 3-1 for Game 5.

And if Couture continues to play as well as he has, the safe money is to count on San Jose’s miraculous 2019 Stanley Cup run continuing.