Teammates support Quick for Vezina

Tomorrow, my feature on Jonathan Quick’s Vezina Trophy chances will get published. This shouldn’t really come as a surprise, but Quick has huge support in the Kings’ locker room. Quick enters today’s games with the most shutouts in the NHL (10), the second-best goals-against average (1.89) and the third-best save percentage (.931). Depending on how you look at it, Quick could be considered No. 1 and No. 2 in the latter two categories. St. Louis’ Brian Elliott has a 1.48 goals-against average and a .943 save percentage, but he has played only 36 games. How will that factor in? Do Elliott’s magnificent numbers mean more than his relatively low games-played total? (The trophy, incidentally, is voted for by the league’s general managers.) It doesn’t seem to matter to Quick’s teammates, including Drew Doughty, who gave this strong endorsement?

DOUGHTY: `If he’s in a different market, somewhere like Vancouver on anywhere on the East Coast, I think there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that he would get the Vezina. I think he kind of gets punished for playing here, just because he doesn’t get that recognition. In a way, it’s not fair, because I don’t think there’s any way that any goalie has played better than him this year. He might not have the same amount of wins as some other goalies, but in a lot of those losses he had, he let up one goal and we didn’t get any. He definitely gets under-recognized, and if he doesn’t win the Vezina, I think it kind of got stolen from him.’’