Quick leading the way for L.A.

When it comes to talking about the NHL's top netminder, there is one goaltender that seems to be overlooked time and time again.

Jonathan Quick of the Los Angeles Kings may be on an up-and-down hockey club, but it certainly has not been his fault. In fact, Quick's play this season may be the only reason why the Kings currently hold down the seventh spot in the ever-competitive Western Conference.

Quick, who played in his first NHL All-Star Game this past weekend, is among the league leaders at the goaltending position this season. In 42 games, Quick is 21-12-9 with a 1.93 goals-against average (fourth in the league), a .934 save percentage (fourth), and 6 shutouts (first).

Time and time again, Quick has been the Kings' best player on the ice. While his 3-1-2 record over his last six games does not look overly pretty, it does show just how well Quick has been playing for his hockey club this season.

In those six games, he has allowed just 11 goals and has stopped 161 of 172 shots for a .936 save percentage. For a starting netminder on an upper echelon NHL club, this should be five wins.

However, the struggle for Quick has been that the team in front of him has not been able to put the puck in the net with any kind of regularity. The Kings are last in the league averaging just 2.14 goals for a game.

Quick recently showed his frustration after losing a game to the Colorado Avalanche last week by a score of 3-1.

"Guys on the team have said to me: 'Forget about it, I'd be frustrated too. We're not scoring,'" Quick said. "That wasn't the source of the frustration. It was based on my play. And no matter what has happened all year, if I look at those three goals I see something I did wrong in each of them."

If Quick can continue his fine play and the Kings can start scoring some goals, they might be able to surprise some people in the Stanley Cup Playoffs come April.

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