Will the Los Angeles Kings Survive If Jonathan Quick's Injury Is Long-Term?

The opening night of the NHL’s 2016-17 season was exciting in a lot of ways, but one will have to forgive fans of the Los Angeles Kings if they aren’t in a mood to celebrate.

Not only did their team fall to long-time rival San Jose, but starting goaltender Jonathan Quick left the game with an injury and may be gone for some time.

Jon Rosen, who works for the team’s LA Kings Insider website, contacted general manager Dean Lombardi, and the initial prognosis was not good:

In a followup report, Rosen added that Quick is slated to have an MRI today. The exact time frame is obviously unknown, except that the potential exists for this to be a long-term injury.

This is terrible news for Los Angeles, for a lot of different reasons.

Quick is the guy who has backstopped the Kings to two championships and has played the majority of the team’s games for eight consecutive seasons. Although the question of exactly where he slots in among the NHL’s best goalies remains a point of contention, the fact is that he’s played more games than anybody else over the last five seasons and posted a very respectable 0.918 save percentage while doing so. He’s a workhorse and an undeniably effective starter.

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The Kings’ reliance on Quick, in combination with the pressure of the NHL salary cap, has led the team to economize at the backup position. This year, that meant signing Jeff Zatkoff to be the team’s secondary goaltender. Zatkoff’s career numbers are decent (36 games, 16-15-3 record, 0.915 save percentage), but he’s also a 29-year-old goalie who has been pigeonholed in a No. 2/3 role.

The loss of Quick and the lack of a starter-in-waiting in the backup role could hurt the Kings in the standings. For most contenders, a small dip wouldn’t be a huge problem, but Los Angeles has never been a team that piles up regular-season points. The Kings finished third in the Pacific division in both of their Cup-winning seasons; in 2015 they missed the playoffs entirely, despite being defending champions.

Thus, there’s an argument that this kind of injury will hurt the Kings more than it would most comparable teams.

There’s a counterargument, however, one that Rosen made on Thursday.

“This is a club equipped to handle the loss of its all-world goaltender better than most by virtue of its strong possession game, aggressive checking and tight structure and detail,” he wrote. There’s something to be said for that point of view.

One of the key arguments generally made in any discussion of Quick’s relative position in the hierarchy of NHL goaltenders is the performance of his backups. Since 2011-12, every Kings backup to play at least 10 games has posted respectable totals:

Player	Seasons	Record	SV%
Ben Scrivens	2013-14	7-5-4	0.931
Martin Jones	2013-15	16-11-2	0.923
Jhonas Enroth	2015-16	7-5-1	0.922
Jonathan Bernier	2011-13	14-9-3	0.914

Some of that doubtless has to do with the quality of the players involved (three of the four were placed in No. 1 roles as soon as they left Los Angeles) and to the coach’s ability to get them favourable starts. Yet it also fits with the style of game that the Kings play, one which is famous for limiting opposition opportunities. It’s not inconceivable that Zatkoff will become the latest Kings goaltender to thrive behind this team.

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Zatkoff also has a pretty decent body of work in the minors. A Kings draft pick back in 2006, he worked his way up the Los Angeles system, splitting time in the AHL with Martin Jones before leaving for an opportunity with Pittsburgh. The Penguins gave him the backup job after two consecutive minor league seasons in which he posted a 0.920 save percentage while playing 40-plus games. He isn’t a famous goaltender, but he earned an NHL job on merit and has been solid when called upon.

If nothing else, the absence of Quick over the mid-to-long-term will be an opportunity. It will give Zatkoff a chance to show what he can do, and the Kings the ability to assess both what they have in their backup goaltender and how well they can manage in the future if forced to play without their longtime starter.

If the worst comes to pass, it’s also early enough that if things go badly, the Kings will have time to adjust and make up points in the standings.

Statistical information courtesy Stats.HockeyAnalysis.com and Hockey-Reference.com. 

Jonathan Willis covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter for more of his work.