Ersberg's season debut

Erik Ersberg gets the start tomorrow, and he will be looking for his first regulation victory since last Dec. 13. After that victory over Minnesota, Ersberg finished the season 1-6-4, with an overtime victory over Dallas on March 5. In five of those losses, Ersberg allowed two or fewer goals, but the Kings’ anemic offense didn’t provide much support.

Here’s what Ersberg said today as he prepared to face the Rangers tomorrow…

Question: How do you feel leading up to the first start? Did you get what you needed from practices?

ERSBERG: “I felt good today. It’s going to be fun. I’m really excited to get in there and play. (Terry Murray) told me a couple days ago that I was going to play this game, so it’s been good to know.’’

Question: I imagine your mindset is just to try to continue things as they’ve been going…

ERSBERG: “Yeah. We’re playing great so far, so we just have to keep playing our system and our style, and I think we’re going to be OK.’’

Question: Watching from the bench, have you seen anything different in this year’s team as opposed to last year?

ERSBERG: “I think we were way better defensively last year than we were in the first year I got here. That’s the bigger difference, I would say. Terry came in and changed it up a little bit, and we’re going to keep going with the same thing this year, trying to be even better. I think we’ve got the PK going on track now too, so that’s a big thing for us too.’’

Question: Is it more difficult to play a team from the East that you don’t see as often?

ERSBERG: “It’s different from when you play teams in your division. Then you know some of the plays they make and some of the players, if they have a certain thing they do, but you just have to go out there and play hockey, basically. I don’t usually think too much about that stuff. I just read the plays as they come.’’

Question: Otherwise you probably run the risk of over-analyzing things, right?

ERSBERG: “Yeah, exactly. I don’t think it’s good to worry about stuff too much.’’