As the Kings navigate a campaign fraught with shifting schedules, rotating personnel and intense rivalries, they might now also have something of a goaltending controversy on their hands.
The incumbent No.1 goalie Jonathan Quick – he of two Stanley Cups, an Olympic silver medal and a Conn Smythe Trophy – had played roughly one period in the Kings’ previous five games, and statistically had been outperformed by challenger Cal Petersen.
Quick, 35, and Petersen, 26, are not only separated generationally but also by nearly $5 million in their respective salary cap hits. Petersen is in the second year of a three-year, entry-level contract. Quick earns $5.8 million against the cap through the 2022-23 season.
Before Tuesday’s start, Quick’s most recent appearance was Feb. 5 when he was pulled after the Kings were overwhelmed by the team speed of the Vegas Golden Knights. Petersen relieved him capably and started the next three games. Quick turned in a scoreless first period on Tuesday, though he faced only three shots in the period.
“They’re both quality goaltenders. Quickie’s numbers at the beginning of the year were outstanding. He had a couple of rough starts, but the team didn’t play really well in front of him either,” Kings coach Todd McLellan said. “We’re counting on both of them to get the job done.”
While Quick has often been hung out to dry by lost battles, missed assignments and errors in judgment, he and Petersen have been playing behind the same roster with similar issues all season.
Each goalie had two wins, splitting time almost evenly in the first 13 games of the season, but Petersen’s other numbers were markedly stronger. His goals-against average was below 2.5 entering Tuesday’s game, while Quick’s was above 4. Petersen’s save percentage was a formidable .926, while Quick’s was a substandard .867, well below the league average.
More telling still, Petersen has not only performed better against quality scoring chances – the type the Kings have given up off breakdowns and odd-man rushes – but he has also faced more of them. Petersen is saving 91.5 percent of high danger shots, while Quick is at 70.6 percent. Quick’s high-danger goals-against per 60 minutes metric has more than doubled from last season, and nearly tripled relative to his peak years.
In other words, Petersen has not only produced better results individually, but he has also done so under more adverse circumstances, statistically speaking.
Petersen had faced 59 high-danger shots to Quick’s 34 going into Tuesday’s game. His expected goals-against is 15.4 to Quick’s 10.6 despite allowing more than 1.5 fewer actual goals per game, with similarly striking disparities in goals saved above average.
So have the Kings reached a torch-passing moment?
“It’s not at that point right now. So with all due respect, I think we’ll leave that one alone until if it does occur,” McLellan said.
A Return, While Others Remain in Waiting
Defenseman Matt Roy returned to the lineup for the Kings against Minnesota, having recuperated from an upper-body injury he sustained in a Jan. 28 meeting with the Wild when Kevin Fiala pushed him from behind, face-first into the boards.
The Wild, coming out of the most serious in-season COVID-19 outbreak the NHL has seen, were still missing multiple players on Tuesday, including four of their six regulars on defense. They had their six previous games postponed while 13 of their players were added to the COVID-19 protocol-related absence list.
The Kings do not yet have forwards Andreas Athanasiou and Blake Lizotte available. They have not played since Jan. 26 and 28, respectively. The team begins a stretch of six consecutive road games on Thursday in Arizona.
“They both have skated. Lizzo is a little bit ahead of Andreas, but both look good,” McLellan said. “They’ll both make the (upcoming) road trip and hopefully, at some point during that trip, they’ll be available.”
CHECK YOUR CALENDAR
The NHL has already rescheduled dozens of games this season and Tuesday the Kings had two games shuffled.
First, the game that had been slated for Feb. 13 against Minnesota at Staples Center was pushed back to April 23.
Additionally, the home game originally scheduled for April 23 against Arizona has been moved up to March 3.
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