Five questions the Kings must answer this season (part 3)

Here’s the third installment of Kings questions, with expanded answers …

How will goalie Jonathan Quick cope in a long season?

Quick really can’t play every game. Sutter only wishes Quick could. Quick is fit after undergoing back surgery and starting last season’s lockout-shortened campaign in sluggish fashion, so that’s not a concern. The big question is, how will Quick respond to the grind of a full NHL season plus playing in the Sochi Olympics with Team USA? He figures to be the starter for an American team that could win gold in Russia in February. One NBCSN analyst said Quick would be his pick to start for the Americans, over Buffalo’s Ryan Miller and Detroit’s Jimmy Howard. Quick hates when reporters ask him about the Olympics, so it’s never easy to gauge his feelings for the Games beforehand. Let’s assume he’s the Team USA starter, and let’s assume he’s going to play four out of every five Kings games between now and the Olympics, that’s a lot of hockey. His workload bears monitoring throughout the season, and especially after the Games.

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