Kings without Quick for three months as goalie looks to "find himself" in India
/The Elbow staff
Jonathan Quick is hoping come back a new man in February. Source
LOS ANGELES, CA – The Los Angeles Kings announced on Wednesday that goaltender Jonathan Quick will not play hockey until February at the earliest, as he looks to "find himself" on a spiritual journey to India.
The 30-year-old reportedly told head coach Darryl Sutter that he has been unable to define who he is as a person in the last few weeks, and felt a strong connection to the south Asian nation after watching Eat, Pray, Love.
"The pressure of "winning" and making "saves"...what's it really all for?" he asked reporters late Wednesday night. "I mean, what is a "save"?"
"I'm not being saved, I know that much."
Quick plans on living in a small community of just 30 people on the western coast of the country, approximately 200 kilometres south of Mumbai. He says that he's open to anything, even the possibility of falling in love with a European woman along the way.
"I'm just going to let the gods do their work," he said. "As Willem Defoe once stated, 'You have to lose yourself to find yourself.'"
"Once I find myself, I hope I'm happy with who that person is."
Quick's teammates are quite baffled by his new outlook on life.
"To be honest, he came back from the World Cup kinda weird," forward Trevor Lewis said this morning. "I initially thought he ate some raw bacon and was just having a really bad reaction or something, but it continued on for weeks."
"Every time I tried to talk to him about it, he would smile and look past me with glazed eyes, holding his hands like he was about to start praying."
Before too long, tea lights and candles encircled his locker room stall, and he had placed a large image of Buddha above his belongings.
"I know all goalies are weird, but he's the first one I've seen shaking incense around the locker room."
Quick has informed the team that he will be making the journey across the Atlantic on a 15-foot boat, with enough supplies to last three weeks. According to sources, San Jose Sharks defenceman Brent Burns made the same journey over the summer on a paddle boat without any supplies.