Crawford wants to keep the Coyotes guessing

Who’s in net? It’s the new game Coach Marc Crawford is playing, as the Kings get ready to play the Phoenix Coyotes tonight.

Just who will be in goal is information given on a need-to-know basis. And, as of Friday, apparently no one needed to know.

“I don’t want to give that away in advance,” Crawford said. “There’s a little advantage in that.”

Crawford is right. The Coyotes will have to prepare for both Kings goaltenders -- Dan Cloutier, who has a 3.48 goals-against average and .874 save percentage, and Mathieu Garon, who leads the league with a 1.72 goals-against average and a .941 save percentage.

Simple logic would lead the most basic hockey mind to predict Garon will be in net, especially since he stopped 40 shots in shutting out the Coyotes Oct. 19. But Crawford, with his team struggling to keep the Coyotes at the bottom of the Pacific Division, is using every edge at his disposal.

“I think it’s still a big deal in how teams prepare,” Crawford said.

“One’s a left-handed stick, one’s right-handed.”

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Rob Blake will play his 1,000th regular-season game tonight.

“It’s just another game,” Blake said. “That’s what we do. We’re hockey players. Only 500 to go. I’m three-quarters of the way there.

“That’s your goal as a player. You want to be around this long. I guess you recognize it and move on.”

Blake said more players would probably reach that benchmark.

“Guys are learning younger how to take care of themselves,” Blake said. “A guy like Anze [Kopitar] knows now what I didn’t learn until I was 26 or 27.”

The milestone was marked in different ways around the Kings’ dressing room.

“I saw an old interview when Blakey was a rookie and he had a mullet,” 24-year old Michael Cammalleri said. “What was up with that?”

Said Blake: “You had to have one of those back then. It was part of your equipment.”

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TONIGHT

at Phoenix, 6, FSNW

Site -- Glendale Arena.

Radio -- 1150.

Records -- Kings 4-8-3, Coyotes 3-9-0.

Record vs. Coyotes -- 1-0-0.

Update -- Kings’ forward Alyn McCauley, who is recovering from knee surgery, will travel with the team but is not expected to make his Kings’ debut for at least a week. Former King Jeremy Roenick continues to struggle with the Coyotes. He has one goal and is a minus-8.

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chris.foster@latimes.com