This is the fourth installment of the Sharks Sterility Stare, and the San Jose Sharks managed to pick up another win last week: a 5-1 beating of the St. Louis Blues. This was noteworthy as the 5 goals represent a season high for San Jose, and the team has now scored 8 goals in its last two contests. It’s not enough to cite it as a trend, but it is more encouraging than averaging 1 score per game as the Sharks were doing earlier.

San Jose’s record now stands at 3-13-1, which means the team has won 3 of its last 6 games to play .500 hockey, so to speak, in the last two weeks. Perhaps it’s just a return to the law of averages, and maybe it’s something more … it is still too soon to tell, for sure. But again, it’s a positive sign in a season that started out so negatively and so ugly with 11 straight losses. The Sharks now hit the road for two games this week.

Part of the issue is the injury absence of San Jose captain Logan Couture, the “leader” on the ice. Yet missing one skater alone is not what ails the Sharks—nor is it a lack of leadership as a result of the veteran center’s absence. Sure, he’s 34 and a remnant of the winning days in San Jose, but Couture is a shadow of his former self: his 5.5 Point Shares last season were far from his career high (8.2) set over 10 seasons ago.

The reality is that Couture was always a nice complimentary piece to the hockey puzzle in his younger days when the team had a lot of talent, but he generally has not been the kind of player to rebuild a team around once that talent left town. His plus/minus rating for the last three seasons is minus-51 … bringing his career mark to even zero. Still, it would be better for the Sharks to have him on the ice than not have him playing.

He was projected to be back after Thanksgiving, but reports this week suggest he hasn’t even resumed skating yet; the San Jose organization will be without its captain for quite some time now, so adjustments have to be made. Credit to Head Coach David Quinn for helping the team overcome its horrible start to the season as the Sharks now resemble something closer to a real NHL team. However, the key is consistency.

Right now, San Jose is on pace for a 17-win season, which is still pretty bad. But if Couture can return, give the team a little boost, and improvements continue, perhaps the Sharks can win 20-plus games and avoid some ugly history. Nowhere to go but up, after all.