Rangers' Jonathan Quick's drought in goal continues in loss to Kings

LOS ANGELES — Jonathan Quick is turning 40 on Wednesday, so realistically, he probably doesn’t have many more seasons left in his NHL career.

But the three-time Stanley Cup champion goalie insists the Rangers’ undergoing a “retool,’’ as per general manager Chris Drury’s announcement Friday, changes nothing for him, at least as far as his approach and preparation for the rest of the season.

“It doesn’t,’’ Quick said on Monday, a day before he got the start against his former team, the L.A. Kings, on Tuesday. “It’s the same approach as any other day, any other month, any other season. Try to win games. That’s always the focus, regardless of circumstances.’’

But all of Quick’s focus wasn’t enough to change the slide he’s been on. He made 23 saves against his old club Tuesday, but second-period goals by Taylor Ward and Andrei Kuzmenko pushed the Kings to a 4-3 victory at Crypto.com Arena, handing the fading Rangers their seventh loss in eight games, and their 10th in the last 12.

For Quick, his personal losing streak reached 12 straight games (0-10-2), as his record overall fell to 3-11-2. The all-time winningest American-born goalie with 407 wins hasn’t won since Nov. 7.

Down 4-2 at the start of the third period, the Rangers pressed, but all they could get was J.T. Miller’s second goal, with 26.7 seconds left, that cut the deficit to 4-3.

“We just had a couple mistakes cost us,’’ Miller said. “The power play had some good looks, and I really liked the response in the third from the guys. I think that showed a lot of character. We had a lot of good chances. We didn’t give in. It didn’t go our way tonight. But, you know, it’s not all bad ... I like the way that we didn’t give in, and we had our looks. Didn’t score.’’

Things couldn’t have started off much worse for Quick, who was beaten by Adrian Kempe 18 seconds into the game. Off the opening faceoff, which Miller won, Braden Schneider dumped the puck in, but the Kings got to it in the corner and moved it out quickly. They ended up with a two-on-one with Kempe and Brandt Clarke against former King Vladislav Gavrikov. As Gabe Perreault hustled back, Kempe dropped the puck to Clarke, Clarke returned it to Kempe, who fired it home.

“How many times have I talked .  .  . about critical moments in games,’’ Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said. “The start of periods, the start of games, last minute, after a goal is scored, after a fight. Those are critical moments in games where teams have an opportunity to build momentum. I do think we responded .  .  . It’s 2-2 after the first period .  .  . But it’s an instance where there’s just not a lot of attention to detail there.’’

The Rangers equalized on a Will Cuylle goal (originally credited to defenseman Scott Morrow) at 8:18, but at 9:00, the Kings were back in front, on a goal by Kevin Fiala after a bad giveaway by Gavrikov, whose cross-crease pass to Jonny Brodzinski was intercepted by Fiala in the low slot and converted for his 18th goal.

Miller tied it 2-2 on his first goal, banging in a feed from Mika Zibanejad, who extended his point streak to 10 games with the assist, at 16:36.

The Kings lost goaltender Darcy Kuemper for the game with 38.8 seconds left in the period when he was bumped into by Brodzinski. On replay, the hit didn’t seem like much, but Kuemper seemed woozy after it. He kept skating back and forth for several moments before the Kings’ athletic trainer came onto the ice and escorted him off it. He was replaced by Anton Forsberg.

But that didn’t seem to faze the Kings, who got goals from Ward, at 4:23 and Kuzmenko, at 12:37, to take a 4-2 lead. In between the Kings’ goals, the Rangers had a five-on-three power play for 1:36, and Sullivan opted to go with a five-forward look on the five-on-three, sending Cuylle out in place of Gavrikov. But they failed to score.

Notes & quotes: Artemi Panarin’s 10-game point streak ended ... Defenseman Carson Soucy returned to the lineup after missing two games due to the birth of his third daughter, Sutton, on Saturday. Soucy, in the last year of his contract, is one of the most likely players to be traded away by this year’s March 6 deadline. He was asked about his approach to the rest of the season with the Rangers. “I mean, just kind of focus on my play here,’’ he said. “Focus on playing well, trying to get wins. That’s kind of where your head has to be, otherwise, obviously, it can be a little distracting. But ultimately, you just got to focus on this team first.’’ ... With Soucy returning, D Urho Vaakanainen was scratched, along with forwards Matt Rempe and Anton Blidh .  .  . The Rangers will be off Wednesday after the back-to-back, and practice at the Kings’ El Segundo facility Thursday before flying to San Jose, where they finish the road trip Friday against the Sharks.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.