How have the Kings survived without Quick? By proceeding exactly as usual

The Los Angeles Kings’ world was momentarily rocked with about 35 seconds left in the first period of their first game this season.

Jonathan Quick, their two-time Stanley Cup-winning goaltender, Conn Smythe winner and Vezina Trophy nominee, injured his groin and would later be deemed out not days or weeks, but months. Their backup, Jeff Zatkoff soon succumbed to injury himself, leaving the crease of a Cup contender to 34-year-old Peter Budaj, who hadn’t started regularly in the NHL in two years.

Just how have the Kings, currently holding down a wild card spot out west, survived the first month then? By proceeding on exactly as usual.

“There’s no point crying about it,” veteran defenceman Matt Greene said of trudging on without Quick. “Everybody’s got to be a little bit better. You don’t replace a guy like that with one person.”

Budaj, for one, has been surprisingly effective.

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The Slovakian is enjoying something of a career revival after winning the AHL’s goalie of the year award last season. He bested all competitors for the Ontario Reign with 42 wins, a 1.75 goals against average and .932 save percentage.

Budaj boasts a .919 overall save percentage so far for the Kings and .944 even-strength mark, which ranks fifth among goalies with at least eight starts (entering play on Thursday).

Budaj came up with back-to-back shutouts earlier this week over the Flames and Maple Leafs. He hadn’t had two shutouts in one NHL season since 2008-09 when he was playing (and struggling) for the Colorado Avalanche.

“He makes the big saves when we need him to and he does all the little things right,” defenceman Drew Doughty said. “He talks a lot, he’s good at playing the puck and he’s just steady back there. And as players, it’s easy to play in front of your goalie when you see the confidence kind of coming out of him.”

Kings players heard about Budaj’s AHL dominance last season and haven’t been surprised that he’s done so well this season.

L.A. doesn’t exactly ask for hero’s work from their goaltenders though. The NHL’s top puck possession team, the Kings surrender a league-best of fewer than 25 shots per game. Budaj had to make just 43 saves total in shutting out Calgary and Toronto.

The Kings often bully foes with their size in the offensive zone while minimizing quality attempts in their own end. They’ve yielded less than 24 five-on-five shot attempts per-60-minutes with Budaj between the pipes, the second-lowest mark for any goaltender this season.

That defensive dominance is nothing new though. Quick saw the fewest such shot attempts per-60-minutes of any true No. 1 last year too.

“That’s how the team’s built,” Greene said. “The team’s built to do that, to win defensively and capitalize on our chances and not try to give up too much.”

Though they blew out the Flames (5-0) and Leafs (7-0), the Kings primarily win close. Five of their wins were by only a goal.

Oddly enough, in light of their relative success so far, L.A. special teams have both been bad, their penalty kill and power play both sitting near the bottom of the league. The Kings also endured a spell of scoring struggles, shut out in three consecutive games at one point with players like Anze Kopitar, Tyler Toffoli and Jeff Carter slow out of the gate offensively.

Fourth liner Trevor Lewis said there was no mourning period when Quick went down in the season opener, just an immediate realization that the group would have to move forward. Though they lost their first three games without Quick, the Kings rolled off four straight after that.

Lewis attributes the steady mentality to the veteran group that’s been together for a pair of Cups.

Quick isn’t expected back until some point in the New Year and until then the Kings just have to keep repeating the formula they perfected during the 2013-14 season. L.A. went 14-7-3 behind the combination of Martin Jones and Ben Scrivens with Quick out that year (also a groin injury), and later won their second Cup in three seasons.

“It’s next man up,” Greene said. “Those next games are coming whether you’re ready for it or not so be ready to go and do your best to help the team get wins, because that’s what we’re here for.”

Jonas Siegel, The Canadian Press