Logan Couture out against Kings with illness

Logan Couture will miss tonight’s game against the Los Angeles Kings with an illness according to Friend of the Blog Kevin Kurz. Kurz notes Couture missed the last nine minutes of Monday’s win over the Winnipeg Jets after blocking a shot with his right hand, but San Jose head coach Pete DeBoer said the two were unrelated and that Couture was battling the illness during Monday’s game.

Ryan Carpenter will see his first action since Nov. 30 when he scored his first career goal at Staples Center against the Kings as the fourth line center. Patrick Marleau played as the second line center with Mikkel Boedker and Kevin Labanc according to Kurz.

Melker Karlsson replaced Marleau on the top line with Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski and Timo Meier played with Chris Tierney and Joel Ward on the third line. Micheal Haley, Carpenter and Tommy Wingels played together on the fourth line. Haley and Carpenter played pretty well together the last time they were partnered up so keep an eye on that tonight.

Hopefully Couture’s absence is short-lived. Losing Joonas Donskoi is bad enough, but having both him and Couture out of the lineup is a much bigger pill to swallow.