Quick’s Gets First Win And His 50th Shutout

Things I find it odd to say: Jonathan Quick had not won a game this season. He lost the season opener in overtime, then injured his groin, came back too early, lost 3 games, and then tore his meniscus. When he came back the second time, the Kings just couldn’t score enough goals. The story of our season really. It looked like it was going to take a shutout, in fact, to be able to win this game, and sure enough, when all was said and done, it did. Rather fitting first game to win – his 50th shutout which officially places him first among US-born goaltenders in that statistic. Jonathan Quick, you are our Jedi and we love you.

The Kings also welcomed back newly minted Hurricanes Captain Justin Williams, who still remains a fan favorite here in Los Angeles. After a ceremonial puck drop by legendary figure skating coach Frank Carroll, the Kings got to work. Well, some of them did. What with their newest acquisition Nikita Scherbak unavailable due to immigration paperwork, Kempe too banged up to play, and all the other injuries currently plaguing the Kings season, they were forced to roll with the 11/7 configuration, doubling up what looked to be Kopitar mostly. Thompson saw his ice time increase, as did Luff and a few others who unfortunately didn’t seem to be able to make a huge impact. An early power play for the Kings didn’t do much to generate any buzz for anyone except Kopitar, whose chemistry with Brown and Iafallo remains at least one constant bright spot of the season. The other? Jedi Quick. I had voiced concerns that bringing him back too early wasn’t a good idea, but clearly this time, they waited until he was. News flash: he can still do the splits and it still looks just so impressive. In fact, a lot of his saves this evening were quite impressive. The best? Where he lunged from one goal post to the other, reaching out a hand and catching the puck with just a finger. Barely touched it, but enough to change the trajectory, which just made it look that much more impressive. I would like to get my hands on the snake that bit Toffoli and exorcize it – if it was indeed the same one that bit Pearson I’d prefer that he figures it out here rather than after we trade him. He was trying so hard, bless him, but shots that would have been (cup)cake for him even last season seem to elude him. Mini breakaways, redirections, rebounds, snipes… nothing was working for him. A flurry of even more impressive Quick saves closed the period scoreless for both sides.

About 90 seconds into the second period the Kings had as many shots on goal as they had in the entire Calgary game, so they must have heard at least one of my gripes. Those shots weren’t getting them anywhere but this season I’m taking one step at a time. At 1:42 Phaneuf nudged Williams into Quick, resulting in a goalie interference power play in which the best thing that could be said about it was they didn’t let Carolina score shorthanded. About a minute later Forbert went to the box (a penalty that seemed to be more about making up for Williams going than anything else.) Thankfully, they had also worked on their penalty kill (ooh, addressing another of my issues from last week! And really every week…) Quick didn’t even appear to need his stick to keep them out, as it lay a few feet from him for much longer than I at least was comfortable with. With the King’s third and fourth power play, they showed no signs of improvement and no signs of actually being able to score a goal. Quick was doing all but actually stand on his head for his team; his boys needed to step up the way that he was if they were going to get him his first win.

The third got a little feisty; no actual fist fights but a few after the whistle scuffles. And some more skating around with no purpose, until … 9:17 Clifford is called for tripping. (Svechnikov sold it pretty well.) Okay, fine, their first penalty kill was pretty good. But literally 30 seconds later Toffoli is called for the exact same thing. Guys? Tripping isn’t good anyways. Perhaps if you’re going to break the rules, wait until the first person who broke them is done serving his time!?! 90 seconds of 5-on-3 and given the Kings scoring woes and the amount of time, would have equaled death. But the Hurricanes had not factored in the Quick element. He was truly exceptional, coupled with a few important clears, and the Kings managed to kill off the whole. damn. thing. It seemed to spur a little bit more life into them, as Mrazek piled up save after save. Kopitar. Amadio. Toffoli. Brown. Then. Finally. Go figure it was two defensemen who broke through, Martinez redirecting Muzzin’s shot with 2:13 to go. Oh, the timing! Of course, Carolina pulled Mrazek and called a timeout to strategize. Clifford’s empty net would clinch the game (in addition to looking quite funny – instead of snapping off the shot from center ice, he skated the puck all the way down into the crease. Oh, Clifford, I’m quite enjoying watching your game this season.) The last 53 seconds were playing for Quickie’s shutout, a well, well-deserved feat.