diff --git a/pkg/client/kubelet.go b/pkg/client/kubelet.go
index ec3d0efd46..16f433cf22 100644
--- a/pkg/client/kubelet.go
+++ b/pkg/client/kubelet.go
@@ -111,7 +111,7 @@ func (c *HTTPKubeletClient) GetPodStatus(host, podNamespace, podID string) (api.
 	status := api.PodStatusResult{}
 	query := url.Values{"podID": {podID}, "podNamespace": {podNamespace}}
 	response, err := c.getEntity(host, "/api/v1beta1/podInfo", query.Encode(), &status)
-	if response.StatusCode == http.StatusNotFound {
+	if response != nil && response.StatusCode == http.StatusNotFound {
 		return status, ErrPodInfoNotAvailable
 	}
 	return status, err
@@ -124,6 +124,7 @@ func (c *HTTPKubeletClient) GetNodeInfo(host string) (api.NodeInfo, error) {
 	return info, err
 }
 
+// getEntity might return a nil response.
 func (c *HTTPKubeletClient) getEntity(host, path, query string, entity runtime.Object) (*http.Response, error) {
 	request, err := http.NewRequest("GET", c.url(host, path, query), nil)
 	if err != nil {
diff --git a/pkg/master/pod_cache.go b/pkg/master/pod_cache.go
index b835bb1209..a146e0ddf7 100644
--- a/pkg/master/pod_cache.go
+++ b/pkg/master/pod_cache.go
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/client"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/labels"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/registry/pod"
+	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/util"
 
 	"github.com/golang/glog"
 )
@@ -264,6 +265,7 @@ func (p *PodCache) UpdateAllContainers() {
 		pod := &pods.Items[i]
 		wg.Add(1)
 		go func() {
+			defer util.HandleCrash()
 			defer wg.Done()
 			err := p.updatePodStatus(pod)
 			if err != nil && err != client.ErrPodInfoNotAvailable {