NHL teams
Pierre LeBrun, ESPN Senior Writer 8y

Rumblings: Kings surprised by Jonathan Bernier's slump with Maple Leafs

When Los Angeles traded goalie Jonathan Bernier to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the summer of 2013, honoring a promise general manager Dean Lombardi had made to him about finding him a new opportunity, the Kings organization was sick over the move.

From Lombardi to goalie coach Bill Ranford, the Kings felt they were dealing away a future No. 1 stud. And of course they had to, with star goalie Jonathan Quick in place for years and a cap system that doesn’t allow you to keep two No. 1 goalies for very long. They only grudgingly moved Bernier.

Imagine their reaction, then, to see Bernier’s struggles in Toronto. Bernier is 0-8-1 with a .888 save percentage and 3.28 goals against average. He was sent to the AHL for a conditioning stint on Wednesday.

"I really feel for Bernier right now," Ranford said in an email Tuesday morning. "He has been a great goalie in this league. He is too competitive of a guy to not get back on track. He just needs to get a win under his belt, and things will take off from there."

It is indeed rock bottom now for Bernier, who was passed over for a goalie who played last season in the ECHL.

Garret Sparks, 22, shut out the Oilers on Monday night in his NHL debut, so Sparks will get the next start in Winnipeg if James Reimer isn’t healthy.

On Monday morning at Air Canada Centre, I asked Leafs head coach Mike Babcock before the game where the team goes now with Bernier.

"Yeah, I don't know," Babcock responded with his usual candor. "Time. It's a real good question. He's probably never been through anything like this; I know he hasn't. So he's got to rebound. But at what expense? We've got to figure that out."

Jim Matheson, a veteran Edmonton Journal journalist, followed that up later by asking Babcock about the Devan Dubnyk example in Edmonton. Dubynk was a goalie who looked totally lost and done, but then resurrected his career elsewhere. Would that, perhaps, be the danger in writing Bernier off?

"Bernier's numbers in the past show that he’s a good goaltender," Babcock said. "And so, for whatever reason, the end of last year and the start of this year, I don’t think it's a physical thing at all. But that's easy for me to say.

"You've got to help the guy fix it. [But] at what expense? It's a team game, at what expense? You can go with him every night; it's easy. But is that the right thing to do? I think we did quite a bit of that."

I like Bernier, but clearly, he needs to get his head right at the moment. At 27, I would not give up on him. He’s a former first-round pick for a reason, and the Leafs need to find a way to get him back on track.

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