Logan Couture wants to come back this season.
But first, he’ll have to get back on the ice.
The San Jose Sharks captain missed the first 45 games of the season with Osteitis pubis, essentially a significant groin and abdomen and hip issue. He returned on Jan. 20 and tallied one assist in six games before the All-Star break.
But even then, his deep groin issue was flaring up again.
“Just kind of creeping in. After that last game in Anaheim [on Jan. 31 right before the break], just didn’t really feel great for a couple days again. It got pretty bad,” he told reporters today.
How bad?
“I thought I was past it. But like I said, as I started to play a little bit more, got more sore and more sore and more sore. Even on days where I didn’t skate and off-days it was getting worse. That’s never a good sign,” he shared. “But yeah, I woke up, I couldn’t get out of bed, couldn’t move for a bit. I knew what it was, obviously, this time.”
The frustrated Couture is trying to work his way back from square one.
“After that, just trying to get back to feeling good away from hockey and [with] day-to-day life stuff. So we’re back to that now,” he said.
Couture is working out and back at the San Jose Sharks’ practice facility.
However, he isn’t back skating and doesn’t know when that will happen.
Couture doesn’t regret his aborted comeback: “I felt really good. I felt like myself on the ice for a solid month or whatever it was when I was skating. But with the games, it came back.”
There’s just a month and a half left on the San Jose Sharks season.
Couture said, at the moment, that surgery is not in the cards. That, of course, can change, if the rest and rehabilitation track that Couture and the Sharks are currently taking runs its course.
How about Couture’s long-term future with the San Jose Sharks? The 34-year-old center has three years left on his contract after this season, at $8 million AAV.
Despite his injury, Couture’s name has popped up in Trade Deadline rumors, because of how valuable a player that he can be when he’s healthy.
But the Sharks lifer emphasized that he loves the organization, and anyway, he’s just focused on getting back on the ice.
“Where my mind’s at, I wake up, do I feel good today? Do I feel better? Am I going to be able to play? That’s all I think about right now,” he said. “If I can get back to playing hockey again, that’s a question you can ask me. But I want to be on the Sharks. I love this place. I love this organization. It means a lot to me. I couldn’t see myself playing for another team, but right now, I’m just trying to get back and play hockey.”
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