Junior Watch

As far as “Junior Watch” is concerned, after tonight’s game both Kyle Clifford and Brayden Schenn will have played eight games. After each player’s ninth game, the Kings must decide whether to keep them on the NHL roster or return them to their respective junior teams. The Kings seem to be drawing out the decisions for as long as possible, which is certainly their right, but Terry Murray said today that his lineup decisions — such as making Schenn a healthy scratch tonight — are not motivated by maximizing the amount of time the Kings have to make decisions.

MURRAY: “No, it’s not that. We want to continue to work with Schenner on his game without the puck. I think that’s the area that gets exposed whenever the matchup happens to be like it was against Vancouver, coming out of a power play. He ends up against the Sedins, as an example, and those are world-class players and MVP of the league, mind you, but that’s the way it happens in this league sometimes. We’re just going to continue to focus in on that part of the game for him. He has a lot of good things. He’s going to be a very good player in the National Hockey League, and we just want to make sure we’re bringing everything along the right way.”