We meet again! But this time on our turf. Kings lost to the Devils when we met last on October 13 inNew Jersey. We lost in the shutout 2-1 with Quick in goal. This time we meet with Bernier in goal.
In case you have been on another planet, the big controversy today is that Coach Murray is sitting Jonathan Quick and playing Bernier. No problem there, except Quick is on a streak with 3 consecutive shut outs! I had to dig deep on my thoughts on this. It’s good to pull Quick and give him rest as well as give our backup goalie play time. But now? In the middle of a streak? I think I have to side on the “play Quick” group. I mean if he is on a streak, why not let him ride it out? I suppose his streak will continue when he plays again, but I just don’t think its fair to the goalie. I’ve read some responses on this as well and the consensus from goalies is this is not right. So we will see how Bernier does and hope he plays well. Then, after sitting out, we can hope that Quick plays as well as he is playing now. We’ll see. I think TM’s job is on the line this season anyway. Who knows, maybe it will work.
We are also still Drewless even though he was practicing on the ice today. But no contact so he will not be available tonight. We will definately see Drew on Thursday when we play the Stars.
Los AngelesKings
# 12 Gagne – # 11 Kopitar – # 14 Williams
# 25 Penner – # 10 Richards – # 23 Brown
# 17 Moreau – # 28 Stoll – # 15Richardson
# 13 Clifford – # 22 Lewis – # 19 Westgarth
# 7 Scuderi – # 3 Jack Johnson
# 33 Mitchell – # 26 Voynov
# 27Martinez– # 2 Green
# 45 Bernier
# 32 Quick
New Jersey Devils
#15 Petr Sykora – #26 Patrik Elias – #8 Dainius Zubrus
#17 Ilya Kovalchuk – #9 Zach Parise – #12 Nick Palmieri
#21 Mattias Tedenby – #14 Adam Henrique – #23 David Clarkson
#10 Rod Pelley – #11 Brad Mills – #25 Cam Janssen
#6 Andy Greene – #5 Adam Larsson
#7 Henrik Tallinder – #29 Mark Fayne
#28 Anton Volchenkov – #24 Bryce Salvador
#1 Johan Hedberg
#35 Keith Kinkaid
Go! Kings! Go!
Noreen M Brownnoreenmbrown
October 25, 2011
I think we should just trust the coach on this one. That’s what he’s paid for and trying to second guess him would be futile. So as much as I would love to see Jonathon (we’re now on a first name basis) play, it’s fair to say that we need our back up goalie in fighting form.
tracykingslover
October 25, 2011
Never trust the establishment! lol.
Actually, its more important to play your #1 goalie for division rivals because they are more important in the end. We have to win our division to move on. So putting the back up against an east coast team is good thinking. Just hate to break that SO momentum.
Mary Reed (@MaryAReed)
October 25, 2011
The question is: Is an injured Drew better than a non-injured Slava? (I guess $56 million says yes. ha).