The Throne Room

Jonathan Bernier stopped all 34 shots he faced for his first career shutout, and Scott Parse and Sean O’Donnell (yes, you read that right) scored third period goals as the Kings beat Nashville for the first time in 8 tries by a score of 2-0. The win reduces the Kings’ magic number to clinch a playoff berth to 6 points in any combination of Kings’ wins and Calgary losses.

Bernier, was outstanding, earning the games first star (an honor he’s gotten in each of his two starts for the Kings this season).

While Terry Murray hasn’t tipped his hand yet, there has been some voicing of concern over the workload of Jonathan Quick, and a general lack of confidence in the Kings’ usual backup goalie, Erik Ersberg. Murray said tonight after the game that Bernier would accompany the team back to LA, and one wouldn’t be too surprised if Bernier might perhaps be in net when the Kings face Vancouver Thursday at home. At least from my perspective though, there is no controversy. Quick has earned 39 wins this season, and has largely been outstanding for the Kings. Management has said their goal is for Bernier to lead the Manchester Monarchs in the AHL playoffs this season. I don’t expect that they’re changing their minds now. It’s possible that Bernier could get another start in the NHL this season, maybe even two, but Quick is the Kings’ number one guy, and he will be the guy between the pipes when the playoffs start, barring a disaster.

With the Kings struggle to find a legit number one goalie, much less a homegrown one, this is a quality problem to have. Quick and Bernier will be the Kings’ two rostered goalies when the 2010-2011 season begins, but with Quick holding down the fort, there’s no need to rush Bernier along. The future for the Kings’ organization in goal, be it Quick, Bernier, or one of three other top prospects, is undoubtedly bright.

Next up for the Kings is Vancouver, who at press time is laying a pretty good whoopin’ on Phoenix. The Kings have only beaten the Canucks once in the last two seasons, and much like Nashville tonight, the Kings must collect points against a team they’re usually not great against. This is the stuff that shows fortitude.

In the meantime, we’ll all cross our fingers and hope for a Calgary loss tomorrow night against Phoenix and a Colorado loss against Anaheim. It kills me, down to my very soul as a Kings fan to have to root for either of those teams, but in this case, it’s rooting for the other team to lose, right?

Kings and Canucks Thursday night at Staples.

Go Kings!

-JS

Tags: jonathan bernier, los angeles kings, nashville predators

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 31st, 2010 at 4:08 am and is filed under Kings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.