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ST. LOUIS — The next goal that Sharks center Logan Couture scores in the playoffs will put him in a tie with Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby for the most goals scored by any player in any one postseason over the past 22 years.
Right now, unless the Sharks win it all, Couture probably couldn’t care less.
Couture’s been on a blistering pace since the playoffs began more than a month ago, and especially since the start of the Western Conference Final against the St. Louis Blues
Couture enters Game 4 of the conference final on Friday with five goals in three games, and he leads the NHL in postseason scoring with 14 goals and 20 points. Crosby had 15 goals when the Pittsburgh Penguins won the Stanley Cup in 2009 and Alex Ovechkin had 15 last season when the Washington Capitals won their first Cup.
Since 2010, Ovechkin leads all playoff scorers with 50 goals. Couture is next on the list with 48 and Crosby and Sharks captain Joe Pavelski each have 42.
That’s all well and good, but for Couture, “Those guys have won and I haven’t. So those numbers don’t mean anything unless we win the Stanley Cup.”
Couture has taken on a larger share of the scoring load since the conference finals began. He has five of the Sharks 13 goals this round, while Joe Thornton, Erik Karlsson and Timo Meier each have two.
Tomas Hertl, Evander Kane and Pavelski have combined for one goal, a 5-on-3 power-play goal by Pavelski in Game 1.
After Couture scored with 1:01 left in the third period on Wednesday to tie Game 4, which the Sharks won 5-4 in overtime, coach Pete DeBoer said, “Just kind of get numb to it. You shouldn’t. I think it’s one of those playoffs runs we’ll look back at years down the road and say, ‘Wow, what a competitor, what a leader.’
“But when you’re in the heat of the moment, he’s just doing what he does.”
Joe Sakic had 18 goals for the Colorado Avalanche in their run to the Stanley Cup in 1996. The NHL all-time record for goals in one postseason is 19, a mark shared by Reggie Leach, who did it in 1976 with the Philadelphia Flyers, and Jari Kurri, who equaled that mark in 1985 with the Edmonton Oilers.
“He does a lot of stuff for us that helps us win games,” Meier said. “He obviously comes up with big goals but also does a fantastic job defensively, plays all three zones. He plays an honest game. As a teammate, it’s obviously unbelievable to have a guy like that on the team.”
