Drew Doughty Finding His Game At A Perfect Time For Kings
Drew Doughty didn’t have the greatest of regular seasons, quite similar to the rest of his Los Angeles Kings team.
Doughty, like the Kings, underachieved all year after receiving a monster contract last summer. He flashed major potential with a 59 point campaign in 2009-2010, but we haven’t really seen that since.
Doughty finished his regular season with just 36 points and a minus-2. Those aren’t terrible numbers for a defenseman, but when you’re Drew Doughty and making over $6 million a year, it doesn’t quite get the job done.
These playoffs have been a different story for Doughty and the Kings, though. Having snuck into the postseason as the no. 8 seed in the Western Conference, the Kings have proven to be one of the more dominant teams in the postseason, with Doughty leading the way on the blue line.
He didn’t make the biggest impact against the Vancouver Canucks in Round 1, but it’s these first three games against the St. Louis Blues where we’ve really seen Doughty step up his game.
The Kings won Game 3 of their Western Conference Semifinals matchup against the Blues in convincing fashion, by a 4-2 count. Leading the way with three points was doughty, who scored his first goal of the playoffs to give the Kings that fourth goal and officially put the game out of reach for St. Louis.
We know Doughty has all the potential you could want in a defenseman, from an offensive standpoint. But he’s been all around solid this postseason. He’s at a plus-5 through eight games and has really demonstrated a steady improvement on the defensive end, even if it doesn’t show up on the stat sheet.
We’ll see if Doughty is able to shake the “overpaid” label at any point in the near future, but he’s taking a step in the right direction with this postseason performance. His play, along with his blue line brethren, are a big reason why the Kings are sitting just one win away from going to the Western Conference Finals.
In a way, Doughty embodies the story of the Kings team all season. They were a club that underachieved throughout the regular season and has found their game in a big way in the playoffs. Doughty has done the same thing and it’s a positive thing to see his contributions not only coming from the offensive end, but on the defensive side as welle.
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