The Throne Room

Quick Nets 30th Win as Kings Stay Perfect on Road Trip

Jon Quick got his 30th win in front of his hometown crowd tonight, the Kings’ overcame some bad bounces and mistakes and beat the Boston Bruins 3-2 in a shootout. The win makes the Kings a perfect 4 for 4 on this road trip, having won 5 straight overall.

Kings took the first lead of the night on a beautiful Dustin Brown redirection of Anze Kopitar’s shot/pass in the high slot. Kings appeared to take a 2-0 lead later when Wayne Simmonds deflected in a shot from Randy Jones, but it was determined that Simmonds tipped the puck with a high stick. It was very close, and the call could’ve gone either way. In the end, it boiled down to the fact that you couldn’t see the net relative to Simmonds in the shot, making it impossible to find conclusive evidence to overturn Don VanMassenhoven’s on-ice call. Based on what I could see, it looked pretty close and I actually think Simmer’s stick was just below the crossbar, but I get why VanMassenhoven made the call that he did.

The second period began a wave of King penalties that caught up with them. Boston defenseman Mark Stuart threw a clean check on Anze Kopitar and Wayne Simmonds, like any good teammate should, stepped in and dropped gloves with Stuart. Brandon Segal was called for delay of game for clearing the puck over the glass. Ryan Smyth was called for interference and Scott Parse was called for a trip that frankly looked like one hell of an embellishment by Marc Savard. The Bruins were able to even the score on a fortuitous bounce off a linesman that went right to Savard, who fed Marco Sturm wide open in front of the Kings’ net. Sturm outwaited a sliding Kings’ defender and beat Quick low to the stick side to tie the game.

Boston took the lead early in the 3rd period on a power play that carried over from the end of period 2. Alexander Frolov (who by the way, sure isn’t playing like he’s in a contract year) decided to take a break from backchecking and allow veteran Mark Recchi to get straight to the net, where he redirected a beautiful pass from David Krejci to make it 2-1 Boston.

But the Kings would tie the game at 4:29 with another power play goal, this time a well placed wrist shot by Anze Kopitar with Michal Handzus camped out in front of Thomas. All four goals in regulation came on the power play.

The Kings had a great final shift of regulation, and missed a chance to put the game away before the extra frame arrived, but were unable to finish. In overtime, the chances went Boston’s way, but the Bruins couldn’t finish either. Enter the shootout.

After Boston’s Zdeno Chara fanned on a slapshot, Anze Kopitar made a beautiful move, going forehand to backhand and tapping the puck in around Thomas with one hand on the stick. You can see video highlight’s here, courtesy of YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rshSbmmKS58.

Boston’s Michael Ryder tied the shootout in the top half of it’s 3rd frame with a beautiful wrist shot that evaded Quick. After Handzus failed to score, Marc Savard and Ryan Smyth traded goals to keep the score even after 4 frames. Patrice Bergeron and Oscar Moller both failed to score in the 5th frame, and Quick foiled Recchi, setting up Jaret Stoll’s laser beam wrist shot to win the shootout for the Kings.

Couple things that stand out to me: Kopitar has 16 points in his last 13 games, many of those without Ryan Smyth on his line. Interesting fact for those pundits whop think Kopi’s success early in the season was owed to having Captain Canada on his line. Brad Richardson and Wayne Simmonds are proving to be quite complimentary as linemates for Kopitar.

Jon Quick now has 30 wins in 49 starts this season, giving him a winning percentage of 61.2, and he has started 49 of the team’s 54 games - a staggering 90.7%. If you use those numbers as a guide, Quick should start 25 of the last 28 and win 15 or 16 games. This of course, could all change if the team suffers key injuries, or could change for the better if the Kings are able to improve significantly at the March 3rd trade deadline. Quick should finish the season with 45-46 wins - and depending on the team’s overall performance, could have a realistic shot at the all-time record for wins in a single season - 48.

Quick will start in goal again Sunday as the Kings wrap up their road trip in New Jersey. The game will pit Quick against Canadian Olympic goaltender Martin Brodeur. Quick has played exceptionally well against other Olympic goalies since he was named to the US team on January 1st. It’s a chance for the Kings to win their 6th straight overall and 7th straight on the road. The game won’t be televised locally, so you’re restricted to radio, or the Devils’ feed on Center Ice.

Go Kings!

-JS