Well now that the Kings' are on a break for the All-Star weekend (next Kings' game isn't until NEXT Wednesday) lets take a look at our Kings' All-Star, Jonathan Quick.
Quick has really deserved the honor of being named an NHL All-Star this year. The Kings enter the All-Star break in seventh place in the Western Conference, despite having the lowest-scoring offense in the entire league. Yea, you can give some credit to the Kings' very strong group of defensemen, but all of us Kings fans know that MOST of the credit goes to Quick.
Despite very little offensive support this year, Quick has been amazing for our team. Quick currently has a 1.93 goals-against average and a .934 save percentage. Only two other regular No.1 goalies (Brian Elliott and Henrik Lundqvist) have numbers that strong. Both of these goalies will be in Ottawa this weekend with Jonathan Quick for the All-Star weekend.
Boston Bruins' goalie, Tim Thomas (I refer you to the previous post) was voted in by fans as the All-Star starting goalie. Quick will be joined by St.Louis' Elliot, NY Rangers' Lundqvist, Detroit's Jimmy Howard and Montreal's Carey Price as the other All-Star goalies.
Jonathan Quick has been deflecting most All-Star questions brought on by the media, saying that he wants to focus on the remaining games before the break. What a guy. This guy is one of the most talented goalies around, but he's also one of the most humble. And when it comes to talking about the honor of being named an All-Star, all he wants to do is focus on his team. Quick did seem more relaxed after the Kings' beat Ottawa Monday night (4 to 1), finally showing his enjoyment for being named an NHL All-Star.
"Now, I'm looking forward to it," Quick said. "Obviously the past week or two, it's been more about what was going on at the time, so you're focused on that, but now that this game is done and over with, and I've got a couple days to relax and get ready for that, I'm expecting it to be a good time and I'm going to have some fun."
Here's basically the rundown of what you can expect from Quick during the All-Star break...
-Quick is scheduled to fly to Ottawa on Thursday morning. That night he will participate in the All-Star "draft," with captains Daniel Alfredsson and Zdeno Chara selecting the All-Star rosters. Last year, all six goalies had been selected by the end of the 10th round of the 18-round draft.
-After the draft, Quick will participate in Saturday's skills competition, then Sunday's All-Star Game.
-The Kings practice Monday, but Quick flys in Monday night and will be scheduled to practice with the Kings Tuesday.
-Then the Kings' play Columbus (please don't lose to them....again) on Wednesday.
While some may worry that this weekend will be too busy for Quick (while the rest of the team is relaxing), Coach Sutter thinks he'll be just fine.
"He's going to get to reload," Sutter said. "He doesn't get back here until Monday, after the game, so he's going to miss a day of practice. Actually, he's going to get a pretty good break in the whole thing, when you look at it. He's going to get to enjoy the weekend there. There's six goalies. They don't get a lot of work.
"The biggest fear you have with goaltenders going to All-Star Games is that they get in that skills thing, and you've got guys bombing shots at them and trying to beat them on breakaways and all that. The reason all those goalies are there is that they're great competitors. Touch wood, but we've seen goaltenders get hurt before at All-Star Games. That's the only thing. You want the kid and his family to enjoy it, then get back to us again."
If anything, Quick's biggest concern will be hearing the goal horn blare excessively. Since 1996, there hasn't been an All-Star Game with fewer than 10 combined goals.
Well, there's that and the fact that if Quick wins any type of award he may have to share it.
Sutter: "We told him that if he did something special, and there was any kind of reward, that he would share it with all of us. [laughs] That's the only thing that we recommended."
*Sources*
Excellent post, as always! Lookin' forward to the spotlight.
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