A Drew Doughty scrum on a game day is always worth the price of admission — no cliches, no throwaway quotes about the opposing players, never an “I would rather not talk about that.”
The star Los Angeles Kings defenceman is always waiting in his stall, actually liking the whole media/player back-and-forth. He talks about how he relishes playing against Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl because he’s a challenge guy, and he applauds what both bring to the NHL table.
When you ask the former Norris Trophy winner about McDavid and Draisaitl, his eyes light up. There’s no “well, they’re both good players and we have to take their time and space away.” He’ll always elaborate and elucidate.
The soon-to-be 30-year-old Doughty — his birthday is on Sunday — loves playing against McDavid, but he’d rather play with him. Like on the Canadian Olympic team with him if NHLers get to go to Beijing in 2022.
“Oh, man that would be sweet,” he said. “That would be cool. I would be looking for him all the time like I am with Kopy (Kings captain Anze Kopitar) because we have such good chemistry. A little different dynamic with Connor’s speed. I think I could just pass it to him and he’d go end to end and I’d get an assist every night. I’ve played with him in an all-star game, but that’s nothing. Not a real game.”
Doughty is almost always on the ice against McDavid and Draisaitl if they are on the same line. It wasn’t that way to start the game Friday with Draisaitl centring the No. 2 line with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins still out with a hand ailment. But Doughty still loves the challenge.
“Kopy and I take great pride in playing against them, looking at the defensive side of the game,” he said. “We’ll sacrifice our points to shut them down. We both love doing it.”
Doughty and Kopitar seem to have a system to if not control the NHL’s top two scorers, then they’ve been able to contain them to a degree.
“We’ve tried to take Connor’s speed away in the neutral zone and be hard on Draisaitl down low,” said Doughty. “Those are their biggest strengths, but if you give them room, they’ll dominate. Connor gets his speed up in the neutral zone and I’m yelling at one of our forwards, just follow him around. I would rather that so he doesn’t get the puck then sit back and Connor goes through five guys.”
“I would rather Connor never get the puck … I mean, it’s an obvious system with every team. Nobody wants him to get the puck. Kopitar is such a great player, he realizes he can drop off and follow Connor.”
Doughty has a good thing in Alberta with the Oilers and Flames rivalry, especially with his running battle with Calgary’s Matthew Tkachuk, but he has a preference. Edmonton over Calgary.
“I like coming to Edmonton because it’s a good game against those two guys (McDavid and Draisaitl),” he said. “I’m ready for that game, and I’m excited to play against Connor as much as he’s way better than me. If I do win that matchup, I get a lot of pride from that.”
“Calgary’s different. I don’t care to talk to their media or be there at all, to be honest. But I do enjoy winning there, for sure.”
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2019
