Major minutes

As previously posted, Davis Drewiske will be back in the Kings’ lineup tonight, giving the Kings seven defensemen and 11 forwards. Last night’s victory over San Jose was a big one for the Kings, but it also was a taxing one for some players. Drew Doughty played 24 minutes, 42 seconds. Rob Scuderi, in his second game back from a nine-game absence, played 21:40, and Matt Greene and Sean O’Donnell also were within seconds of 20-minute games.

Given that the Kings face another game tonight, against a Phoenix team that has given them problems this season with speed, Terry Murray decided to go with seven defensemen tonight. Here’s what Murray said about the move…

MURRAY: “Just the support, `in case of.’ Scuderi is fine, there’s nothing wrong, but I want to make sure that everything is good on the back-to-back. I want to let our back end have choices here, with matchups, with minutes played. We ended up with a lot of minutes played, in a couple cases, and this gives us an opportunity to back off on some of those hard minutes. We have confidence in Drewiske. He sat out a couple of games. We have talked to him and hopefully he’s ready to get back on page.”