Another opportunity for Bernier

A few days ago, when he named Jonathan Quick as his starting goalie for the game against Vancouver, Terry Murray indicated that he wouldn’t by shy about playing Jonathan Bernier down the stretch. Sure enough, Bernier got the call to start tomorrow night’s game against Dallas. Part of it, no doubt, is scheduling. After tomorrow, the Kings face a tough four-game road trip and, for the next two weeks, they will be playing games every other day.

MURRAY: “Both goalies are good. Bernier had a shutout the other night. I think his game has really stepped up here, from the start of the year. With (games) every second day, coming through this month, very intense games and both goalies playing well like they are, it’s a great opportunity to use those guys on a rotation, right now, that’s going to get us through to the end, when I have to make a decision (as) to what we’re going to do.”

You might note the interesting word choice there at the end. Murray certainly makes it sound as though he hasn’t decided which goalie he might use in potentially critical late-season games, doesn’t he? On the other hand, Murray had praise for Quick’s effort against Vancouver, a game in which Quick stopped 33 of 35 shots.

MURRAY: “I was pretty pleased. I thought he got better as the game went along. Early, there were some pucks coming back out, from shots that were long shots. They end up with (36) shots at the end of the night. They probably end up with a dozen from the middle of the ice, from the neutral zone. Some of those, early, were coming back out for long rebounds. As we got going in the game, that cleaned up, and he did end up making some very big stops in the game. So I did like what I saw, as he kept digging in against a top opponent in the league.”