ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Rangers attacked their first back-to-back set of games without their No. 1 goaltender, beginning with Monday night’s 5-3 loss to the Ducks.
Spencer Martin stopped 21 of the 25 shots he saw in the defeat, while Jonathan Quick is slated to face his former team in Los Angeles on Tuesday.
Asked if Quick’s 16-year history with the Kings factored into the decision to play him in the second game, coach Mike Sullivan left nothing for interpretation.
“It does,” he said with a smile. “Without a doubt, it for sure does. I think Quickie deserves that.”
Since the Kings traded him to Columbus, which flipped him to Vegas in March 2023, Quick has faced the club that drafted him 72nd overall in 2005 three times as a Ranger.
He has yet to win in Los Angeles, however, after the Blueshirts fell 2-1 in his return to the city in January 2024.
Appearing in relief in one of his previous three games against the Kings, Quick owns a 1-1 record and a .952 save percentage against his former team.
The 39-year-old Quick got a run of five consecutive games from Jan. 5-12 amid Igor Shesterkin’s injured reserve designation.
Since Shesterkin went down with a lower-body injury, Quick has posted a .786 save percentage (22 goals on 103 shots) and an 0-4-1 record.
His 5.78 goals-against average over that span is the highest — by a considerable margin — among NHL goalies who have appeared in at least five games since Jan. 5.
The Rangers haven’t helped Quick much in front of him. The Connecticut native has also been pulled twice in his past three games.
Martin, who signed a two-year contract with the Rangers in November, made his Rangers debut in relief in Boston. Since then, Martin has owned a .852 save percentage and a 4.16 GAA.
He picked up his first victory with the Blueshirts in a 25-save performance in Philadelphia.
“I thought he played well,” Sullivan said of Martin in Philly. “I thought he made some key saves for us, in particular in the third period [against the Flyers]. We felt like he played well. The reality is, we’re going to need two goalies given the workload of games leading up to the Olympic break. We’ll continue to monitor that. We thought he played real well the other day.”
Carson Soucy joined the Rangers for morning skate in Anaheim but did not suit up Monday night.
“He’s had a long trip coming back, hasn’t skated in three days,” Sullivan said. “We didn’t think it was the right thing to do to put him in right away.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
