San Jose is faced with a lot of bad center options with Joe Thornton and Logan Couture out of the lineup. Tomas Hertl has played quite well as the third line center in the past few games and Joe Pavelski has held his own, but the Patrick Marleau-centered second line got absolutely walloped last night by the Edmonton Oilers — this is a recording.
Logan Couture may very well return for the first game of the playoffs; he also may not. Let’s operate under the assumption he won’t, just in case. The Sharks can’t keep rolling out the second line as it was constructed last night and expect it to work because, well, it’s not working.