Confidence restored

Terry Murray didn’t really need to say that he had lost confidence in Erik Ersberg. It was fairly evident, back in October, when Murray said he had “erased” the goaltending plan he had penciled in at the start of the season, and it’s been evident in the massive workload that has been handed to Jonathan Quick in the first three months of the season.

But in his last three outings, Ersberg has looked solid, leading to the question of whether the goalie had regained some of the coach’s trust…

MURRAY: “I would agree that there was a little bit of a confidence issue there. I can justify it, in my opinion. I go back to the Ranger game. Giving up one shot and we lose the game in the third period. So I can go back through a few situations, but his game recently, and his practice habits… And let me be fair to him too. He had that bone bruise on his hand, through quite a bit of time in practice, and it was on his caching glove (hand) and it was bothersome. Every time the puck hit that spot, he had to take five or 10 seconds to relax and settle in again for the next play. He’s healthy, he’s been working very hard in practice recently, and I think you saw a pretty good result with his effort last night.”

28 Comments

  1. BMSTANG says:

    I think as importantly it’s a good boost to EE’s confifidence. Glad to see him playing well.

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  2. Kris says:

    Yes he started shaky last night. Can’t blame the 2 goals on him tho. After that fluke goal in the first I saw him lay on the ice for a moment. In that moment I saw focus come to him. The shakiness started to go away at that point. The 2nd one, more can be placed on the 2 pen. (the first of them should have earned the sharks player an academy award). Man I hate not being able to bash him. As much as I love to hate him, he is gaining ground in my book.

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  3. john_oc says:

    when he robbed heatley at point blank with his glove hand, he was feelin it.

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  4. DetroitSons1952 says:

    Just a little off the subject, on Home Ice they mentioned that the Kings would like to sign Kolvachuk and DL said not as a rental player but only if he will sign a new contract and it would involve a trade. Interesting. We have plaenty of Cap space and this is a guy you can depend on to take a game over and score.

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  5. jon says:

    yeah ersberg played well last night,especially since he has not played at all our offense just wasn’t there last night, I really thought when we had the 2 man advantage we would tie it. rather all I got was a sharks fan clapping in my face when it was over

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  6. Dominick says:

    Maybe things will even out a little to take some of the pressure off of Quick.Heading into the last half of the season and not having to worry about the goaltending is a good problem to have.

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  7. jon says:

    Detroit. I understand the cap space thing. well if we don’t sign frolov there will be some space and thank god ivanans is gone after this season. which will open the door for westgarth

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  8. DetroitSons1952 says:

    While the Kings were all over the Sharks last night, I noticed that when there was chaos in front of Nabakov, we were really too,too deep to get the rebounds, We wound up with nothing….. again. I thought Ersberg played a heck of a game, does anyone here have any idea what it would be like to sit almopst all season and then get thrown to the lions, wolves and in this case the Sharks. Ersberg must have felt like chum bait.

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  9. jon says:

    not chum bate. it was worse when he started in San jose and got the win. it was an ugly win. but it was a win against the best team in the league

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  10. VanKingsFan says:

    Jon: If Westgarth was any better than Ivanans, he would be on the team, he had his chance and failed in camp

    Detroit: I bet Ersberg is just stoked to get in some playing time rather than feel like chum bait. And I think it also would boost his confidence that TM has enough faith to put him out there against a really good team in a game we really wanted to win

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  11. Kris says:

    Off the subject, but leave it to a former Kings player to do our bidding. At 1:11 into the first Molson scores to put the Wings down 1-0. Still early tho.

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  12. VanKingsFan says:

    On Moulson: Teddy, please be watching this and taking notes…

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  13. jon says:

    Van. westgarth is doing well in Manchester. and has just as many points in the NHL as ivanans. I’d like to see him on the line with segal and moller. maybe they could have some chemistry together. it’s worth. shot next season when ivanans is gone

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  14. jon says:

    just as many points as ivanans this season

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  15. 54FIGHTING says:

    I think this says it all. EE needs to go. Please. Biron can be had for cheap I believe.

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  16. Kris says:

    wings down 2-0! 3 min left in first

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  17. badGoltending says:

    hickery dickery dock
    go ahead and shop
    send Ersberg to the wings
    bring Kovy to the kings
    send purcell far away
    columbus or the bay
    kopi toughin up
    Quick just keep it up
    we know fro is gonna go
    what time will tell nobody knows.

    not even freakin lombardi knows if he did he’d tell us right???

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  18. Howe 9 says:

    Through all the sitting he did, Ersberg never had a bad attitude but was a great team player. Good for him!

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  19. Kris says:

    wings down 3-0 in 2nd.

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  20. Kris says:

    4-0 now!

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  21. Haeil30 says:

    Oh yes 54FIGHTING, Ersberg having a great game and regaining the confidence of his coach definitely shows that he needs to be traded. /sarcasm

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  22. Dominick says:

    Howe 9,I agree.If it were me I would have started complaining long ago.

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  23. ziggy33 says:

    Thank you NY Islanders! Great night for the Kings with the Wings and Stars losing tonight!

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  24. Frolov rocks says:

    Ersberg did play a heck of a game,hopefully he can keep it up. I was impressed,even though i love Quick as our starter.

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  25. 54FIGHTING says:

    Do I really need to say any of this. If confidence needs to be resotred, that means it was lost. There are better goalies available and what’s a GM’s job but to make his team better and win a cup. EE is not EVER going to be the answer for us. When Labs was here the team didn’t have confidence in EE, now Quick is here and there still is little confidence in EE – tells me all I need to know. You can say he didn’t have goal support or that he played a good game or that his attitude is great – fact is – the guys isn’t a winner. You don’t rely on him and I would be willing to bet that if he was placed on waivers there wouldn’t be a claim for him. I guess we’ll see about that next year though when Bernier pushes him off this team for good.

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  26. 54FIGHTING says:

    In saying all this I think it would benefit the Kings to have a veteran backup over a young cheap EE. Quick is no Kipper/Brodeur. In fact this is Quicks first full year as the #1 so he’s going to have ups and downs, they all do – just look at how Price or Mason (take your pick of which one) have done this year. More importantly ask yourself if Quick gets hurt can I trust EE to get us to the playoffs. My answer is no and I would guess that these boards would be going crazy for DL to make a trade or bring up Bernier as our saviour in that situation. Hence, I don’t like EE. Easy as that.

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  27. What's the frequency, Kenneth? says:

    1) I’m not sure scrambling the lines actually did anything. I look forward to the lines being returned to something the players are comfortable with.

    2) Since Ersberg has been playing well, I think this is the wrong time to pick on him. Looking around the league, there are very few teams who have a backup goaltender anywhere near what they’d like. It just doesn’t happen.

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  28. KC23 says:

    EE did look very very good and kept us in the game in the 3rd period.

    Too bad the rest of the team let em down.

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