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Sharks’ McLellan: Couture isn’t carrying ‘baggage’ after difficult last season

Colorado Avalanche v San Jose Sharks

SAN JOSE, CA - APRIL 11: Logan Couture #39 of the San Jose Sharks during a break in play against the Colorado Avalanche at SAP Center on April 11, 2014 in San Jose, California. (Photo by Rocky Widner/Getty Images)

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A nagging hand injury that required surgery mid-season, being left off Canada’s gold-medal winning Olympic hockey team and a devastating team loss in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

There were plenty of difficult times - individually and on a team basis - for San Jose Sharks’ forward Logan Couture during the 2013-14 season.

It began to unravel somewhat in January for the 25-year-old Couture, who scored 23 goals and 54 points but only appeared in 65 regular season games.

News of the hand injury came on the eve of Canada’s Olympic hockey team announcement. He wasn’t named to the team, which he felt he should’ve been. And the season came to a bitter end when the Sharks coughed up a 3-0 series lead and lost in seven games to the eventual Stanley Cup champion L.A. Kings.

Couture, obviously very disappointed with the way the season ended, seems to have moved on, according to his head coach in San Jose, Todd McLellan.

“It piled on, but I don’t think he is carrying that baggage with him at all at this point. I haven’t sensed it,” McLellan told CSN Bay Area.

“He hasn’t expressed to me at all that that’s the case. We look at a pretty refreshed young man that’s ready to play.”

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