Jonathan Quick

The Kings signed goaltender Jonathan Bernier to a two-year, $2.5-million contract extension Monday, one day after they announced he will begin the season as the backup to Jonathan Quick . Bernier, 22, has a year left on his entry-level contract. The new deal will start with the 2011-12 season, when he will earn $975,000. He will earn $1.525 million in 2012-13. The average annual value for calculating the salary cap hit is $1.25 million. The Kings also put goaltender Erik Ersberg and left wing Richard Clune on waivers.

Beware the seemingly ordinary, almost harmless-looking game against an Eastern Conference foe in early December. The Kings and the Florida Panthers are not exactly associated with bad blood, bile and belligerence. By the time the Kings skated away with a 2-1 victory - and their goalie Jonathan Quick making 41 saves and adding a rare assist - the win ended up being an especially costly one at Staples Center on Thursday night. Let us count the ways. Not only did another defenseman, Willie Mitchell, fall by the wayside early on, the Kings lost center and spiritual leader Mike Richards for the third period.

The Kings are inching closer to reaching the postseason for the first time since 2002. But looking as if they'll make the playoffs and looking like a playoff team are not the same thing, and there were plenty of problems in their 4-1 loss to the Dallas Stars on Saturday at Staples Center. The Kings have lost three games in a row and five of their last seven. Even so, Calgary lost earlier Saturday, leaving the Kings with a magic number of eight points and eight games to play.

Reporting from Nashville — A fast start to Thursday night's game for the Kings quickly evaporated after goaltender Jonathan Quick misplayed a puck behind his net less than five minutes into the opening period. With their early momentum lost, the Kings could not recover and suffered a 4-2 loss at the hands of the Nashville Predators. Nashville has defeated the Kings six consecutive times, and in eight of their last nine meetings. The teams play twice more in March. The first minute of the game was all Kings.

CALGARY, Canada — Recovery Day … how about calling this the Recovery Night? The Kings did that and more in another in a long line of so-called biggest games of the season, beating the Calgary Flames, 3-0, on Wednesday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome, putting them in seventh place in the Western Conference. The Kings have 88 points, one point behind Pacific Division-leading Dallas. San Jose also has 88 points and Phoenix has 87. The four teams all have five games left.

There were the typical opening night flourishes, the usual video and audio blasts of power designed to stun the senses or at least jolt them into pregame submission. But the most impressive sleight of hand, albeit old school, came about an hour later at Staples Center, in the second period Tuesday. In less than five minutes, the Kings managed to transform an ordinary-looking game, almost January-like, into something special on their way to a 5-0 victory over the St. Louis Blues before a sellout crowd.

A little bit déjà vu, a little bit Groundhog Day, the Kings' 3-2 victory over the Phoenix Coyotes at Staples Center on Tuesday had a distinctly familiar feel. And with good reason: Until the final minutes, it resembled the 4-0 rout the Kings had inflicted Monday against the hard-working but offensively inept Coyotes on the same ice. A few key details changed Tuesday as the Kings won their third straight game and 12th in the last 16 while improving to 12-2-1 at home. BOX SCORE: KINGS VS. COYOTES The physicality picked up and erupted in several scrums.

Brent Burns practically set up base camp next to Jonathan Quick in the third period, the San Jose forward getting clean looks and helping generate chance after chance against Quick. The Kings' goalie had to be at his very best under a prolonged third-period siege by Burns and his teammates, reaching back and pulling off a virtuoso performance from his 2012 playoff playbook. That playbook, as you might remember, is titled, "Most valuable player of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The Kings and New Jersey Devils went through a scoreless first period that was anything but a snoozer at Staples Center on Monday. The Devils had the better of the play, but once again were thwarted by Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick. The Devils had a two-man advantage on the power play for one minute and generated chances, but could not beat Quick. New Jersey got off three shots, two at the crease. But Quick stopped a rebound try by Andy Greene and a tip by Zach Parise. Opposing teams have scored only five power-play goals in 65 chances against the Kings during the playoffs.

KINGS TONIGHT AT EDMONTON OILERS When: 6:30 p.m. PST. Where: Rexell Place. On the air: TV: KCOP Channel 13 Radio: AM 1150. Records: Kings 27-22-2, Oilers 15-26-8. Record vs. Oilers: 2-0-0. Update: Jonathan Quick, who posted a shutout and won a shootout in his last two starts, earning recognition as one of the NHL's Three Stars last week, will be back between the pipes against a last-place Oilers team that has lost six of its last seven games.