Can Drew Doughty help the Kings find stable ground — and earn a ticket to the Olympics? – The Athletic
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Drew Doughty, a diehard Toronto Blue Jays fan, wasn’t able to watch for most of last Saturday night as a mesmerizing Game 7 against the Los Angeles Dodgers played out in tense drama over four nail-biting hours.
Maybe that was for the best. Trying to corral New Jersey’s Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt on one line, and Nico Hischier and Dawson Mercer on another, was enough of a distraction. That is Doughty’s job: dealing with the opposition’s best forwards for 18 seasons now with the Los Angeles Kings.
“But we got in the room before it ended and got to see the end,” Doughty said of Game 7. “Not that way I wanted it to go, obviously.”
Doughty has never hidden his Blue Jays fandom. He had a full uniform get-up for the Kings’ team Halloween party. He boldly supports his hometown baseball team. That love certainly extends to his employers, the Kings, who are trying to find their equilibrium after a volatile October, in which they were defined by their uneven play, including losses in five of their first six games. This week, the Kings recorded their first home win in seven tries — on Tuesday vs. Winnipeg — a surprise given that they set a club record last season with an NHL-high-tying 31 home victories.
“We’re feeling good in here,” Doughty said on Wednesday. “I mean, we put in good periods and stuff together early in the year, but now we’re putting more of a 60-minute effort together and that’s what’s going to win us games.”
That didn’t happen on Thursday for a Kings club seemingly unable to build momentum. A 2-1 first-period lead over the Florida Panthers dissolved over the final 43 minutes, with the Kings guilty of multiple errors and breakdowns in an eventual 5-2 loss.
Entering the game, the Kings had collected points in nine of their previous 10 games. That hides the truth of their average play. Just five of those nine were victories — and only three in regulation. Only the San Jose Sharks have fewer, with two. At 6-5-4, Los Angeles has been scratching out points but is unable to push forward with a win streak.
The last few months have been trying for Kings fans. Attendance is on a two-year downturn, with tickets sold dropping to a current average of 16,390 (90.5 percent capacity) over the first seven home games after being at 17,945 (99 percent) in 2023-24. Blame has been directed at coach Jim Hiller, as fans haven’t forgotten his decision-making last spring against the Edmonton Oilers. If it isn’t him, it’s lobbed at first-year general manager Ken Holland after an uninspiring roster makeover or at team president Luc Robitaille, who has presided over four straight playoff defeats to the same team.
Doughty isn’t immune to the criticism. Invariably, it centers around his $11 million salary cap number and the reality that he’s no longer an $11 million defenseman. At 35 years old, he’s not. And it isn’t fair to view him through that lens. His eight-year extension, signed in 2018, was earned after two Stanley Cup championships, a Norris Trophy and three runner-up nods, along with multiple seasons as a premier two-way defender in the league and a monster minutes-muncher.
There is an interesting dynamic with Doughty this season. He feels like himself again, a year removed from an ankle fracture that put him out for the first four months of 2024-25. He wasn’t happy with his play after he fought back from injury to play for Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off, a best-on-best level he wanted to be desperately involved in. The ankle is in far better shape, but he’s still dealing with advancing age and now seeing his minutes trimmed here and there, including a season-low 19:01 on Thursday.
Right now, Doughty is trying to halt the Kings’ uncomfortable slide toward the league’s middle and is trying to play his way into a third Olympics, after gold in 2010 and 2014. NHL players haven’t participated since then, with the league skipping 2018 and the pandemic-related pull-out of 2022.
“I’m trying to do everything I can to help our team win,” Doughty said. “I’m not in all the same situations I used to be in. They’ve kind of tailed me back a little bit, which I’ve been frustrated about. But I always have the Olympics in the back of my mind that keeps me up for the games and keeps me pushing to play well.
“Been pretty frustrated with my offensive side of my game, not getting many points, none of that. But I know Team Canada’s necessarily not looking at me for that part of my game. They’re looking at me for my defense. I’ve been doing awesome in that area. I’m skating so much better. I feel a lot better out there. It’s just the offense isn’t coming.”
Doughty being minus-3 on Thursday won’t quiet the rumblings and outright grousing. But there is validity to Doughty’s assertions about his defensive work. Evolving-Hockey has him at 2.26 expected goals against per 60 five-on-five minutes, which is right behind usual defense partner Mikey Anderson. Doughty isn’t decisively winning his five-on-five minutes like young teammate Brandt Clarke, but he remains an effective play-driver.
When it comes to impressing Team Canada general manager Doug Armstrong and his staff, Doughty hopes they consider his bounce-back from an injury that left him a shell of himself. And he knows that he’s held in high esteem, given his history in international play. As he said, “I know that some people in Hockey Canada are going to want me there because I’ve been there before.
“That obviously gives me already something more than the other guys have because no one else has really been there,” Doughty continued. “But at the same time, they saw my game last year and how I wasn’t able to defend the way I was capable of. And so coming into this season, I had to show that my ankle was back. I could skate again. I could play well. And I think I have shown them that thus far.
“I still think I got a little more to give. But in no means do I think I’m on this team automatically. I got to earn the spot, and I don’t want to earn the spot as a seventh or eighth D. I want to be in the lineup. Top-six D. Who wouldn’t want that? I believe if I keep going like this, I have a good chance.”
Hiller sees Doughty’s desire for one more Olympic run as something that will benefit the Kings.
“You know Drew is a competitor,” Hiller said, “and he’s an L.A. King through and through. So, I think that’s a nice carrot for him. But I don’t expect anything would be different if that wasn’t an Olympic year.
“Drew plays hard. He wants to win. He gives us all at any time. I can understand knowing it’s there and having that as a goal. But I don’t think it affects his day-to-day. I think we get what we get from him in any case.”
During Thursday’s game, Doughty received an ovation in recognition of becoming the Kings’ all-time leading goal scorer among defensemen. Already the points leader among the franchise’s rearguards, Doughty scored into an empty net against Winnipeg for his 162nd goal to pass Rob Blake.
Doughty is the Kings’ greatest defenseman, a player that The Athletic ranked 73rd on its NHL99 list in 2022. But he misses Blake, the former GM, who is no longer around after he mutually parted ways with the organization in May. The two routinely talked in Blake’s office, with Doughty going over his game, discussing the team or just using the Hall of Famer as a sounding board for whatever crossed his mind.
In his 18th season, Doughty presses on. The attitude remains intact while the Kings try to shake free from a growing unexceptional state. Doughty has a mentality to defy people who tell him he can’t do something, and uses any real or perceived slights as a driving force.
“If you tell me no, I’m going to want to do it more,” he said. “It’s a fine line. You don’t want those things to get in your head and piss you off too much but at the same time, if you can use it as fuel, I think it’s a good thing. For the most part, that’s what I’m able to do.
“Yeah, every time someone doubts me, I want to prove them wrong.”
