Anyone who has had mononucleosis can tell you that it takes several months before you return to top form as an athlete. One's vitality is usually severey lacking from this draining & tiring virus.
However it seems that Logan Couture is playing himself back into shape and slowly improvimg his timing, stamina, conditioning, etc. while improving his point production. It was late November I believe (11 games into his season) before he scored his first goal.
Hockey hall of fame inductee & junior coaching legend Brian Kilrea has a lot of high praise for this young player, and the article in today's Kingston newspaper is proof:
Frontenacs' skid grows with loss to Ottawa 67's
Claude Scilley/The Whig-Standard
Local Sports - Monday, December 18, 2006 Updated @ 11:11:29 PM
We can only hope that the Kingston Frontenacs have saved all their good gift ideas for the folks back home.
They certainly didn’t have much to offer their fans yesterday as they played their final Ontario Hockey League game before the holiday break.
The loss was the ninth in the last 10 games for the Frontenacs, who have tumbled all the way to eighth place in the Eastern Conference. Ottawa, resident of the East division basement for most of the current campaign, climbed one point ahead of the moribund Kingston club with yesterday’s win.
"We’ve been in that horse [deleted] spot since the season started," said Ottawa general manager and coach Brian Kilrea. "Now we’ve given ourselves a chance to get up with the other teams and have something to fight for."
Winner of eight of their last 12, the 67’s have rallied around the return of Logan Couture, Kilrea said.
Couture struggled through the first two months of the season with mononucleosis and has only been fit for the last couple of weeks, said the coach.
"We [lost] our best player for two months," Kilrea said. "We tried to get goals, everybody was trying to do their best, but we didn’t have Logan. Now we’ve got Logan and everyone’s playing a little bit better around him. He’s that good a player."
Kilrea said it isn’t just about Couture’s offensive skill, though he had a goal and two assists yesterday.
"It’s what he does defensively and what he does all around the rink, in the dressing room and everything else. He’s just such a good kid. He doesn’t take long shifts and tire himself out and be subject to something going [wrong] defensively. He’ll take a short shift. He just won’t be on the ice if he’s tired. He’s an ultimate team player.
"We missed him for two and a half months and we paid a price."
The 67’s got three goals from Jamie McGinn yesterday, and a 37-save effort from Brady Morrison, the former Frontenacs goalie. It was a performance neither coach was discounting as a factor in the outcome.
"Morrison is very confident against us, for whatever reason," said Kingston coach Bruce Cassidy.
"Maybe because it’s his former team, he wants to shove it up our ***, I don’t know, but he plays well against us and his numbers don’t bear that what he does against us he does against the rest of the league."
Morrison, who has given up 15 goals in five games against Kingston (3.00 goals-against average), has a 3.83 average against the rest of the league. With a 4-1 record against the Frontenacs, he’s 9-11 against everybody else.
"We had almost 40 shots with only two power plays," Cassidy said. "We got pucks to the net, we just weren’t in a position to score on the rebounds."
For Cassidy, it was the essence of the game.
"If we get goaltending it’s a different hockey game," he said. "I don’t think we got the big stops."
His team having lost all but one of its last 10 games, Cassidy said the seven-day break the Frontenacs will now enjoy is as good for them as anything.
"I don’t like to run from our problems," he said, "but by the same token if you’re going to have a break, now for us it’s good. Even for myself and [general manager Larry Mavety], we have to sit down, maybe re-evaluate our lineup, too. The [trade] deadline’s coming up. Do we need to address certain areas? What’s out there?
"Then just for everyone to get a mental break. The losing wears on you. Let’s face it, when you’re winning you want to be at the rink every day. When you’re losing, it gets to you."