The Throne Room

Quick’s Outstanding Play Finally Rewarded With Victory

If you’ve ever played the sport of hockey as a goaltender, there are few things more pressure ridden than backstopping a team that isn’t scoring many goals. Following the Kings’ dramatic comeback victory in Boston last Thursday, the Kings had scored a whopping 2 goals in 3 games - no surprise all losses. Enter the recent world of Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick. There was the cheap-shot laden 4-1 loss in Pittsburgh (I’m still upset that the league gave Malkin a free pass on his head shot to Wayne Simmonds), followed by games in Chicago and St. Louis in which Quick was outstanding but the Kings were only able to score once. Quick has been the constant positive in an otherwise dismal road trip for the Kings, who at this point can’t convince me they could score with a ten dollar hooker. You can see the frustration in the faces of the team and coach Terry Murray. Meanwhile, Quick has held the fort, waiting for the metaphorically dry group to bear water.

Thursday night in Dallas, it didn’t. In a game where both goaltenders (Quick and Dallas backstop Marty Turco, who wasn’t too shabby himself) will get credit for a shutout, the Kings managed to put the puck in the net for the first time in over 125 minutes of hockey. Too bad it was in the shootout where it doesn’t count statistically.

The first two periods and change of the game were not only painful to watch, they were literally painful to both teams. The Stars lost Trevor Daley and Krys Barch to injury in the first two periods and the Kings lost center Jaret Stoll to the all too vague “lower body injury” (Kings are expected to release more information Friday) early in the third. If the Kings were truly alive in the playoff race, losing a key contributor (the team’s best face off man) would be potentially devastating. Since they’re all but mathematically eliminated by now, it won’t make much of a difference. Best hope is that Stoll isn’t seriously injured and is ready to come back for training camp.

A little before the halfway point in the 3rd period, the game started to open up. Despite the fact it was a showcase between two teams that are likely to miss the playoffs, the game took on a playoff type atmosphere. Both teams traded chances for the remainder of the 3rd period and overtime but both Quick and Turco kept the puck out of the net.

Quick stopped Stars scorer Mike Ribeiro in the opening frame of the shootout and Anze Kopitar beat Turco with a beautiful move that was reminiscent of the move he put on Minnesota’s Nicklas Backstrom back on 10/16/07. Judge for yourselves:

The goal against Minnesota (10/16/07):
Kopitar Shootout Goal vs. Wild (10/16/07)

Last night’s goal:
Kopitar Shootout Goal vs. Dallas (03/26/09)

After James neal hit the post for Dallas and Jack Johnson was denied for the first time in…I can’t remember, Jere Lehtinen placed a perfect shot over the left shoulder of Quick to even the shootout at 1.

King newcomer Justin Williams won it for the Kings on a bizarre play in which Turco appeared to make the save but the puck seemed to trickle through him and Turco’s momentum carried his entire body across the goal line. The referee initially signaled no goal, for what I’mnot completely sure, but it was quickly overturned, giving the Kings the win and two points.

The Kings are 4-0-1 against Dallas this season and will win the season series with the Stars regardless of what happens at Staples next Tuesday in their final meeting.

So, now the Kings are at 72 points - ahead of last season’s 71 with 8 games left to play. The win is nice, but the scoring thing is still a huge issue.  Technically the Kings have been shut out in two straight regulation games, and if they want to post any sort of respectable record.

The win was Quick’s 4th shutout of the season. WIth the playoffs all but impossible now, Quick is clearly playing to help secure himself a job for next season and beyond. It’s nice to see at least one guy in the Kings’ locker room that hasn’t mailed it in.

The worst news of all: Kings travel to Nashville for a date with the Predators Saturday, against whom they are 0-3 this season. Nashville is a perennial thorn in the Kings side, a team that, while not impressive on paper seems to have the Kings’ number. Kings don’t seem to have an answer for the Predators. Hopefully Jon Quick will have something to say about that on Saturday.

-JS