Kings don’t panic, explain that goalie Jonathan Quick needs time

Jonathan Quick started last season by losing his first two starts and dropped his opening three starts in the lockout-shortened season in 2013. The “up” start to the season was 2013-14 when he lost two of his first three.

History doesn’t always provide a full explanation, but it helps considering the Kings goaltender has lost the first two games this season. Goalie coach Bill Ranford filled in some of the blanks.

“It’s been six months without real competitive hockey, which he’s not used to doing,” Ranford said Monday after practice. “And the things we all know about him — he needs to play and he hasn’t. It’s one of those things. You’ve just got to get through it.”

There have been other culprits in the losses. For example, rookie Jordan Weal‘s miscue on Arizona’s third goal Friday, and defenseman Jake Muzzin, shaking off the injury-induced rust, with a team-worst plus/minus of minus-four.

“Quickie’s fine. We haven’t been helping him out enough,” Kings defenseman Drew Doughty said. “I feel like as defensemen and forwards, we’re not letting him see enough pucks and were letting the other team get deflections and stuff like that.”

The top line — now split up — of Milan Lucic-Anze Kopitar-Marian Gaborik looked flat in the opener. Lucic has been with center Jeff Carter and Tyler Toffoli at recent practices, and captain Dustin Brown moved up to join Kopitar and Gaborik.

Quick’s goals-against average is 4.50 and save percentage .833. He didn’t waste any time responding to the latter number.

“That’s for people that don’t know the game,” Quick said. “Those numbers, they mean nothing. We’re 0-2. That number means something.”

There are almost always corrections and fine-tuning going on between Ranford and Quick. Quick takes solace in the “routine” he has developed with the longtime goalie coach.

“We talk about hitting his spots early, as far as getting his feet set, and just tracking the puck better,” Ranford said. “The first game was a lot of unfortunate bounces and Game 2 was just, we needed a big save and we didn’t get it.

“Goalies go through this and you’ve got to fight your way through it and just be better next game. He’s a competitor. He’s not one of the best in the league by accident. He takes it personally, and that’s not a bad thing…. As a group, we’ve got to help him out. He’s just got to gut it out and get through this.”

Updates

Kings Coach Darryl Sutter disclosed that winger Dwight King will be out for eight to 10 weeks, having required surgery to repair a broken bone in his foot. King suffered the injury when he blocked a shot in the preseason finale at Las Vegas.

Defenseman Jeff Schultz, who played in the opener, cleared waivers on Monday and was sent to the Kings’ American Hockey League affiliate in Ontario (Calif.).

KINGS VS. CANUCKS

When: 7:30 p.m. PDT, Tuesday.

On the air: TV: Fox Sports West; Radio: 790.

Etc.: Sutter’s nephew, Brandon, is with the Canucks, traded from Pittsburgh to Vancouver in July. He has been on a line with the twins, Daniel and Henrik Sedin.

lisa.dillman@latimes.com

Twitter: @reallisa