"He's been, obviously, dealing with a nagging injury here the past little while and felt that it wasn't comfortable enough to be able to participate in the All-Star Game," Blake said. "We knew the full ramifications from the NHL and deal with that situation, but we had to pull him out of the All-Star Game here today."
Quick, who played 24:21 Tuesday before he was pulled after allowing five goals to the Vancouver Canucks in a 6-2 loss, backed up Darcy Kuemper in a 2-1 overtime win at the Calgary Flames on Wednesday. Calgary goalie Mike Smith was named Thursday as Quick's replacement on the Pacific Division team at All-Star Weekend in Tampa. The 2018 Honda NHL All-Star Game will be played Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC, SN, TVA Sports).
"All-Star Games are a 3-on-3 format and there's a lot of different situations for a goaltender. [It's] way different for a player," Blake said. "If we can take this time, due to his past injuries and seeing what kind of season he had last year with that, we want to make sure he's 100 percent healthy. If we can get five to seven days here, by the looks of it, we're going to use it."
Quick must sit out the Kings' next regular-season game, Tuesday at the Dallas Stars.
"We understand the rules from the NHL," Blake said. "We've been in touch with them. Going forward, nothing has been released yet, but we understand part of that process is you have to have a game off.
"It's fine. We understood that going into this whole scenario. He needs some time here to heal up. It's all part of the process."
Quick, 32, is 20-17-2 with a 2.44 goals-against average and .921 save percentage in 39 games this season. He played 16 games last season after returning from a groin injury he sustained in the first game at the San Jose Sharks.
