Kings-Lightning Preview
Jonathan Quick bounced back from a poor effort with one that the Los Angeles Kings expect from him.
He's enjoyed great success in the past against the Tampa Bay Lightning, who will likely counter with Ben Bishop at home Wednesday night in this matchup of top defensive clubs.
Quick allowed four goals on 21 shots in two periods before Jhonas Enroth replaced him in Sunday's 4-3 loss at Carolina. He was back to top form Monday with 33 saves in a 3-1 victory at Florida.
"Quickie is the best goalie in the world and he never quits on pucks," defenseman Alec Martinez said. "He's always staying in the battle and staying in the fight."
Quick is 5-1-0 with a 1.58 goals-against average in six starts against the Lightning. He'll try to help Los Angeles (13-8-0) cap this five-game trip with a 3-2-0 mark.
"At the end of the day, if you want to win on the road, you've got to shut some guys down, and to do that, you need great goaltending," coach Darryl Sutter said.
The Kings yield 2.19 goals per game for the league's third-best mark, with Tampa Bay (10-9-3) second at 2.18. Bishop is among the league leaders with a 2.05 GAA after a 30-save effort for his first shutout in Saturday's 5-0 rout of Anaheim.
The Lightning seek their first three-game win streak since the season's first three games. Their offense has been the issue with an average of 2.41 goals.
"Our team defense has been outstanding this year but we need to score more than what we have to get us more wins," coach Jon Cooper said. "I think it's the timeliness of our scoring, that's been the problem."
Steven Stamkos had two goals Saturday to end a three-game drought. His coach isn't concerned about the superstar, who has 11 goals with no one else on the club owning more than six.
"Stammer, what has he got, 11?" Cooper said. "The next guy on our team has what? Five or six, maybe half that. That's not falling on Stammer, it's falling on a lot of other guys who've got to start scoring some goals."
Nikita Kucherov has six goals and Vladislav Namestnikov has five. Kucherov ended a six-game drought Saturday and Namestnikov has come up empty in 13 of his last 14.
While the Lightning are beginning a stretch of three games in four days, the Kings are concluding such a stretch to end their trip.
"They've had a long trip," Cooper said. "This is the end of, I guess, three of four for them. If there's any opportunity to take advantage of teams, you've got to take advantage of them at the end of a road trip."
Tyler Toffoli, who scored his team-high 11th goal Monday, insists that the Kings won't lose focus.
"We know going into Tampa what they bring as a hockey team and that's going to be a huge game," Toffoli said. "We want to finish this road trip on the right note."
Los Angeles has taken six of the last seven matchups.