In October 2009, while in Las Vegas for a fairly meaningless exhibition game, defenseman Sean O’Donnell (then with the Kings) made a bold statement about goalie Jonathan Quick.
He said “I think he has what it takes to be an elite goalie in this league.”
It’s a comment that would have seemed innocent enough or as simple as a teammate propping up his netminder, except for one thing. At that point, Quick hadn’t even played in 50 NHL games and was just one year removed from being in the ECHL.
Fast forward fourteen months and the Kings were in Philadelphia today to take on the Flyers, where O’Donnell now patrols the blue line.
The Kings came in on a modest 6-0-2 streak, however they had gone 0-9-1 in the City of Brotherly Love since the Flyers moved out of the old Spectrum.
Prior to the game enforcer Kevin Westgarth acknowledged the team was “looking for a little retribution” – having lost to the Flyers in LA back in December.
Anze Kopitar set up Drew Doughty just 17-seconds into the second period to put the Kings on the board first. Then, after Quick turned aside the first 25 Flyer shots, LA came into the third clinging to a precious 1-0 lead.
As noted in the ‘Nine Things You Need to Know Today’ pre-game article, the Kings were 17-0-0 when leading after two periods.
Make it 18-0-0. Doughty’s goal stood as the game winner and Quick saved 15 more shots in the third for his sixth shutout of the season.
Video highlights after the jump…
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