Kings' Quick out until at least Christmas: Lombardi

Los Angeles Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick will be out of the lineup until Christmas at the earliest, general manager Dean Lombardi said on a radio program Wednesday.

Lombardi explained the status of Quick's injury as a guest on the "Hockey Central @ Noon" program on Sportsnet 590 The Fan. Quick has not practiced or played since sustaining a Grade 2 groin strain against the Buffalo Sabres on Nov. 12.

"It's going to be a while," Lombardi said. "At least another month. We're probably looking, if things go according to plan, at Christmas."

Though Lombardi admitted Quick's injury was a setback, he expressed confidence the Kings' current slate of injuries would help them in the long run. At the moment, the Kings are without a number of high-profile players, including Quick, forward Jeff Carter (lower body) and defenseman Matt Greene (upper body).

"When we won the Stanley Cup [in 2012], we went 16-4 and every night we played the same lineup. That's unheard of. Last year we got a little taste of [injuries] with [Willie] Mitchell and Greene being out all year," Lombardi said. "But we've never been wiped out like this where you lose [Kyle] Clifford and [Jordan] Nolan and Greene and Carter and Quick. But every team has that at some point. And they're going to have to fight their way through it."

In Quick's absence, backup Ben Scrivens has been the talk of the NHL. Scrivens was acquired this summer in a trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs that sent Jonathan Bernier to Toronto. In four starts since Quick was injured, Scrivens is 4-0-0 with a 1.00 goals-against average, .963 save percentage and two shutouts. Monday, he was named the NHL's first star of the past week.

"Our goalie coaches, Bill Ranford and Kim Dillabaugh, do a great job with all the goalies on our food chain. They had scouted Ben quite a bit before we made the deal," Lombardi said. "There were some holes in his game and we started to try to clean those up. We've still got some work to do. The one thing about Ben that he has done is he has worked extremely hard. It's nice to see him be rewarded."