At 39, future Hall of Famer Jonathan Quick is still a force to be reckoned with in the NHL as a backup goalie for his hometown New York Rangers. With 18 seasons in the league, Quick has faced many great goal scorers. But there is one player he finds more difficult to defend against than any other: Sidney Crosby.
Few goaltenders can match Jonathan Quick’s résumé. 804 regular-season games. 404 wins. Three Stanley Cups and one Conn Smythe Trophy. It’s no wild guess that the Connecticut native will be inducted into the Hall of Fame when he decides to call it quits.
Best snipers
During his tenure in the NHL, which has spanned three decades, Quick has stopped shots from some of the greatest goal scorers in the history of the sport. In two articles for The Players’ Tribune published in 2015, Quick listed the best snipers he’s ever faced. Names like Pavel Datsyuk and Patrick Kane are mentioned. And, of course, Alexander Ovechkin.
Quick recalls one game in Los Angeles when Ovechkin attacked on a 2-on-1.
“Ovi didn’t have the puck — he was the passing threat on my right side. He’s a right-handed shot, so he was in the perfect position for a one-timer. But he kept drifting backward to the point where he was so far wide that my brain was naturally like, There’s no way. And the guy still made the pass over to him. He must have been two feet from the wall. I took his position for granted because he was so far out, and somehow he wired it so hard that I didn’t even have a chance,” Quick writes.
Jonathan Quick on Sidney Crosby
But there’s actually someone Quick finds even harder to defend against. And that’s Ovechkin’s longtime rival, Sidney Crosby.
“The best backhand shot in the league. I think it might’ve been my first or second year as a pro, and he scored on me from, like, the hash mark on the wall. Not with a forehand. With a backhand… that beat me far corner. That’s pretty much unheard of. You should stop that 100 out of 100, but he got it off so quick and the puck came in so hot that I didn’t even know it was in the net until his hands were in the air. It was ridiculous,” Quick writes.
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