It was, of course, a surprise to no one that Tuukka Rask would be starting against the Kings on Saturday night, a combination of his recent play and Niklas Svedberg’s trip to Providence on a conditioning stint. Rask has started 12 of the Bruins last 13 games, and appears likely to start the next six as well.

It’s not Bruins coach Claude Julien’s usual way to confirm his starting goaltender early in the day. But on Saturday, Julien did. There was no choice, really.

In that stretch, Rask has a 1.83 goals against average and a .941 save percentage, and has been back to his Vezina Trophy-quality play. And that’s even with Rask playing heavy minutes.


“I look around the league and I look at other goaltenders and they’ve had the same workloads, a lot of them,” Julien said. “It’s not like he’s being overworked with back-to-backs or five-in-eight where he’s played all five games. When that comes, we’ll manage that, but right now I think he’s doing fine.

“From my end, I keep checking with him, asking how he’s feeling, making sure if he’s tired then I’ve got to make a decision there. When a goaltender is hot you have a tendency to want to ride him.”

For his part, Rask said that he has been feeling good physically, that he has “no complaints.”

“I like to play a lot,” he said. “I think the schedule has been fairly good for the rest too, and we just had the break, so I feel good.”

Over Julien’s tenure, however, he has not usually used one goaltender as much as he has used Rask over the past couple of seasons. Rask so far this season has started 39 of 49 games (79 percent) with Svedberg getting the remaining 10 starts. In 2013-14, Rask started 58 (70 percent) with Chad Johnson getting 23 and Svedberg one. In the lockout shortened 2012-2013, Rask started 34-of-48 games (71 percent).


But before that, the splits were more even. From 2007-08, when Julien began coaching the Bruins, no goaltender started more than 55 games (67 percent of an 82-game schedule).

“I still want to go with two,” Julien said. “For me it’s not so much the amount of games more than the in-between the games. I think that’s where it’s important that your goaltender get some rest.

“We’ve got a goaltender on standby that if we want to give Tuukka the day off and the rest of the team practices, we could bring him in. We’ve planned all that stuff. We’ve got to do what’s right for our team, but we’ve also got to do what’s right for Tuukka.

“We manage that stuff, but a goaltender too, with time and years, becomes more durable in my mind. He probably doesn’t stress as much as he did early on and mentally he’s not as tired and everything else. I think that’s what happens with goaltenders and why you give goaltenders a little bit more time in the minors to mature.”

Kings at a glance

■ When, where: Saturday, 7 p.m., at TD Garden.

■ TV, radio: NESN, NHL, WBZ-FM (98.5).

■ Goals: Marian Gaborik 15, Jeff Carter 14, Tyler Toffoli 13, Justin Williams 13.

■ Assists: Anze Kopitar 27, Drew Doughty 25, Carter 22.

■ Goaltending: Jonathan Quick (17-12-10, 2.48 GAA), Martin Jones (4-3-2, 2.20).


■ Head to head: This is the second and final meeting. The Kings won, 2-0, Dec. 2.

■ Miscellany: The Kings split two meetings with the Bruins last year . . . Los Angeles hasn’t won in Boston since 2010 . . . Carter has three goals in his last two games.

Follow Amalie Benjamin on Twitter @amaliebenjamin.