Throughout the road trip, Terry Murray had been noncommittal in terms of his plans for the goalies at the end of the road trip, with back-to-back games. So it wasn’t a huge surprise last night when Murray said that Jonathan Quick would start again today against New Jersey. It’s always interesting to look backward at the thought process, though? Was that really the plan all along, or did Murray change his mind at some point?

MURRAY: “All along, quite honestly, I was thinking that this would be the opportunity for Ersberg to play. Then with his game in Columbus, I started to rethink it, and then last night again, it kind of confirmed that I need to keep going with Quick.”

Terry Murray said Jack Johnson will play today against New Jersey. As something of a precaution, the Kings will go with seven defensemen, with Peter Harrold staying in as a forward.

Teddy Purcell will retun to the lineup, and Raitis Ivanans and Brandon Segal will be healthy scratches, giving the Kings lines of…

Richardson-Kopitar-Simmonds
Smyth-Stoll-Brown
Frolov-Handzus-Purcell
Parse-Moller-Harrold

Yesterday, we did the poll regarding which players on the Kings’ roster you would consider “untouchable” in trade talks. The top vote-getters, in order, were Drew Doughty, Anze Kopitar, Wayne Simmonds, Jonathan Quick and Dustin Brown, with Brown getting double the votes of the sixth-place finisher, Matt Greene. Because I messed up, we’ll have to include Ryan Smyth somewhere in the top five. Now it’s the prospects’ turn.

Here’s my LAKings.com game story for tonight, with stats and video included. Thanks for reading!

Kings beat Bruins 3-2 in shootout

After tonight’s game, Terry Murray said Jonathan Quick will start in goal Sunday at New Jersey. Murray said Jack Johnson’s status could be determined in the morning.

Terry Murray’s postgame thoughts…

(on the shootout success…)
MURRAY: “It’s always good when we score, but we know we went through some difficult times last year with it, so we’ve been on both sides of it.”

(on overcoming the second period…)
MURRAY: “There was a whole lot of momentum gained with all the power plays that Boston had. They really started to feel comfortable with the puck, and had a real attitude when the game got tied up. They really came at us with a lot of heavy play. They were banging us around pretty good, but we hung in there. The three lines that ended up playing, I thought they played their butts off. They really dug in and did a great job. And the same thing on the back end, with a lot of great attitude to pull it out on the road.”

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Jonathan Quick’s postgame thoughts…

(on winning close to home…)
QUICK: “It makes it a little more special. When you come out out to the East Coast, you get to play in front of people you know. And it was an exciting game.”

(on whether the Kings stole the extra point…)
QUICK: “I wouldn’t say that. We played a great game. We were running around a little out there in the second, but aside from that we had a strong first, a strong third, and the team battled. I wouldn’t say larceny at all. You go on a five-game road trip, like we are, you’re going to have periods like the second period. You just have to know how to stay focused and to relax and play through it.”

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Wayne Simmonds’ postgame thoughts…

(on his thoughts after seeing Kopitar get hit…)
SIMMONDS: “No, it’s obviously not (good). He’s our best player, but regardless of whether he’s our best player or not, whenever somebody gets hit like that, you’ve got to intervene there. You’ve got to do something.”

(on whether he thought it was a clean hit, or even knew…)
SIMMONDS: “I just saw him get hit, and those were my first instincts. I jumped in there. I got 19 minutes in PIMs because I talked to him first. He dropped his gloves first, but it is what it is, and I did what I had to do. … It was all instincts. When you see a teammate get hit hard like that, you’ve got to do something about it.”

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Anze Kopitar postgame thoughts…

(on whether he played, or improvised, his shootout goal…)
KOPITAR: “I had it in my head the whole way. Just two weeks ago, or maybe not even two weeks, we got into a shootout with those guys. I was kind of thinking he was going to wait for my backhand. I figured I would change it up a little bit and it worked for me.”

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Jarret Stoll’s postgame thoughts…

(on the win…)
STOLL: “You have to keep battling through it. Even when you don’t have your best some nights, you have to find ways to win, and we’re doing that right now.”

(on his shootout goal…)
STOLL: “I’m not much of a dangler, so I was going to shoot for sure. As I went in, something opened up and I just tried to fire it and put it where I wanted to. Lucky enough, it went in.”

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