LOS ANGELES – He may be a perennial backup, but Jhonas Enroth is playing like a starting goaltender in the NHL.
Enroth made 31 saves in his first start at Staples Center on Thursday night and the Los Angeles Kings defeated the New York Islanders 2-1.
"It was perfect," Enroth said of his first home start. "I was excited to get the start here at home and get the first one out of the way. It was nice to get the win here."
The Swedish goalie is undefeated this season with a record of 3-0-0 through the Kings first 16 games. Enroth has allowed just two goals in those three games and has an astounding .979 save percentage nearly a full point higher than Jonathan Quick's .914 percentage.
For Enroth, he's comfortable in his role as a backup goalie, but knows he possesses the skills necessary to be a starter in this league.
"I'm pretty comfortable," Enroth said of his role. "It's a touch craft to manage, but these first three games have gone pretty well for me. I want to play more games, but I've been playing behind Ryan Miller and Quick, two great goalies."
Enroth's skills were on full display on Thursday night when the Kings faced a 5-on-3 penalty with 16:10 remaining in the third period and LA clinging to a one-goal lead.
The Kings killed off the two-man disadvantage thanks to Enroth who made two incredible saves over the 45-second span that changed the outcome of the came and swung momentum back to Los Angeles.
"I was kind of lucky to make a couple big saves in that 5-on-3 span there," Enroth said. "It's always huge when you can kill those off. It was great for us to get that momentum."
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The 27-year old goalie was drafted by the Buffalo Sabres in the second round (46th overall) in the 2006 NHL Draft and spent his first three years finetuning his craft with the Portland Pirates in the AHL. When he was finally called up to the Sabres, he was stuck behind Ryan Miller for three and a half seasons.
Enroth was given an opportunity to start during the second half of the 2013-2014 season after Miller was traded to the St. Louis Blues halfway through the year. Unfortunately for Enroth, the Sabres were in rebuilding mode, and rarely put a competitive team on the ice.
Despite being the worst team in the NHL, Enroth was easily the best player on the Sabres, but was traded to the Dallas Stars the following season for Anders Lindback. Enroth but he was stuck behind Kari Lehtonen for most of the season.
Enroth signed with the Kings as a free agent this offseason on a one-year, $1.25 million deal. The Kings are hoping that Enroth can start between 15-20 games this season, relieving some of the wear and tear off Quick who started 72 games last season.
Thus far, Enroth has been perfect with the Kings and has fit in nicely with the team and in his backup role. If Thursday's victory was any indication, Los Angeles should expect to see more starts, highlight reel saves and victories when Enroth is in net.
