Quick didn't particularly like how it ended for him in Los Angeles. He was traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets on March 1, a move that ended his legendary run with the Kings.
He played for the Kings from 2007-23. He won the Stanley Cup in 2012 and 2014. He is Los Angeles' all-time leader among goalies in regular season games played (743), wins (370) and shutouts (57), and games played (92), wins (49) and shutouts (10) in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Quick's former teammates, particularly Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty, who won the championships with him, did not at the time easily process their friend being traded either, even though he was at the end of a 10-year contract and wasn't the No. 1 anymore, having been passed in that role last season by Pheonix Copley, who played opposite him Sunday.
Quick was traded to the Vegas Golden Knights a day later and helped them win the Stanley Cup as the backup to Adin Hill in the playoffs, but it wasn't until Sunday that he got to finally face his former team for the first time.
He signed a one-year contract with the Rangers on July 1.
"It's a game that this summer when the schedule comes out you know when we're playing them," he said.
Quick's current teammates knew what it meant to him, too, even without the goalie having to tell them. Forward Vincent Trocheck, who had with three assists Sunday, said Quick didn't say a word before the game.
"Nope," Trocheck said. "Just another game."
It wasn't, and the Rangers didn't treat it as such.
"He's such a good person, great teammate and obviously this is one we really wanted to have for him," Trocheck said. "So, we gave that extra effort tonight."
Quick noticed.
"You could see it, right," he said. "You could see just their effort, the attention to detail, everything. The team's performance was phenomenal."
It was the perfect time for the Rangers, who were coming off a 4-0 loss to the Washington Capitals less than 24 hours earlier, a game that they did not like and one coach Peter Laviolette said had too much wrong in it to publicly dissect.
"We didn't play our best game [last night] as a team and you want to come and give a great effort for your team to try to win a game and obviously bounce back after our game last night," Quick said. "That's the focus. Obviously, you've got other stuff filtering in your head throughout the day. At the end of the day, we wanted to bounce back as a group. If it gave the guys a little more motivation than great. We obviously responded and we played a terrific game."
Quick improved to 8-0-1 with a 2.20 goals-against average and .922 save percentage in 10 games with the Rangers this season. If he played last season the way he's playing this season, the Kings likely wouldn't have traded him. They might have even re-signed him. Who knows?
If Quick was thinking about what-ifs and what could have beens as he struggled to pass the time before puck drop Sunday, those thoughts should be easier to deal with now that he beat his former team.
"I thought it was fantastic," Laviolette said. "For him to have the success he's had with one organization and then to come in here and play as well as he has for us, and now to see that matchup against his old team, everybody was pumped about that and the way he played throughout the entire game."
