Sharks current record: 13-31-4 (.313)
Sharks projected record: 23-54-5 (.313)
NHL record for worst season in 82-game history: 14-57-11 (.238)

The Sharks Sterility Stare has good news to report this week: the return of San Jose Sharks team captain and first-line center Logan Couture! He played in his first game of the season last Saturday, and maybe not coincidentally, the team won all 3 games on the schedule last week—that can’t be incidental, really. It’s the longest win streak of the season for the San Jose organization, and confidence is flying now for the team.

Couture only contributed 1 assist in his 3 games back so far, so it’s not that he has been some sort of dynamo on the ice. In fact, the Sharks have lost their second-leading scorer in center Mikael Granlund (29 points in 38 games) to a shoulder injury, meaning it’s not a return to strong overall team health, either. San Jose also didn’t have it easy with the schedule last week, playing some top teams in the league and beating them.

We don’t have an explanation, other than Couture provided some sort of emotional boost to the team as a whole. It all started last weekend with his return to the ice, as the Sharks beat the Anaheim Ducks in San Jose by a 5-3 score: after a goal-free first period, the home team outdid the lowly visitors in each of the next two periods by 1 goal each time, getting an empty netter with just 7 seconds left in the game to clinch it.

The Sharks still got outshot 34-18 in this one, leaning once again too heavily on goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood. But a victory is a victory, and this one was sort of a must-win moment, considering the Ducks are the next-worst team in the Pacific Division. Thus, San Jose delivered on an emotional night at home against a bad team. Those are the kinds of wins the Sharks have to get during a season like this one, right?

On Monday night, the team traveled to Los Angeles to take on the Kings, who are in fourth place among Pacific Division rivals this season, despite the impressive record (22-15-9). However, L.A. has been in a slump lately, winning just twice in its last 15 games. The Sharks definitely took advantage of that situation, securing a shootout win just days after choking away a shootout situation in Chicago (see our commentary).

Then, on Tuesday night back at home in San Jose against the New York Rangers—the top team in the Eastern Conference’s Metropolitan Division with a 29-16-3 record—the Sharks fell behind 2-0 through 2 periods before mounting a third-period comeback and stealing a victory in overtime on one of the prettiest plays you’ll see all season from this roster. It’s hard to explain a win like this, but San Jose will take it. Indeed.

Hockey—like baseball—is a long season of ups and downs, and fans have to ride out the storm while experiencing those strange highs and strange lows. This was a week of strange highs, for sure, and remember, if you take away the two huge losing streaks for the Sharks this season … the L11 to start the season and the L12 that started in December … then San Jose is 13-8-4 this year. Sounds good to us!