The biggest news item from today’s morning practice was that Kings coach Terry Murray will put Jonathan Bernier in net vs. the New Jersey Devils tomorrow night at Staples Center.
Regular starter, Jonathan Quick, is riding a three game shutout streak – the longest in team history – having just defeated the Blues, Coyotes and Stars.
Why the change? Here’s what Murray had to say about the decision for Tuesday, his conversations with both goalies and what he’s thinking about doing next weekend vs. Phoenix and Colorado…
On why Bernier will start – “It’s a decision I made a couple of days ago. I let Bernie know at the Saturday skate because I wanted to get him prepared and I knew Sunday was going to be a day off. I wanted him to have an opportunity to get himself ready and today he got a good workout in. We have a lot of games coming up and right now the schedule starts getting pretty busy. We have three Conference games right after New Jersey. So, it’s an opportunity to get him going.”
On interrupting Quick’s streak -“I made the decision before the game and I’m not going to change that. I’ve talked to Bernie about it, I’ve talked with Quicker about it….that’s the way it is.”
More on talking to Bernier ahead of time – “I let Bernier know, he was the only guy.”
On Quick’s reaction to the decision – “He’s very understanding that it’s the early part of the year and there’s a lot of games coming up that are huge games for us. You can’t play in all 82 games, although I say ‘Why not?’ sometimes.
On the possibility of Quick playing in both games this coming weekend, back-to-back in Phoenix and Colorado – “There’s a possibility. I don’t have anything planned right now…I’ll just take a read as we move through it.”
Do the days off following this coming weekend play a factor – “Oh yea. I look at all that stuff and how the players are playing against those teams, over their history and sift it out.”
Bernier has only played in one of the Kings first seven games this season, a 4-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres in Berlin, Germany.
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