The next step?

It’s no stretch to say that the Kings’ best two players are 22-year-old Anze Kopitar and 20-year-old Drew Doughty. Kopitar is coming off a season in which he set career highs in goals (34), assists (47) and points (81) and led the Kings in all three categories. Doughty, in his second season, became a Norris Trophy finalist. While those are big accomplishments, the reasonable questions is, what’s next? Neither player is even close to what is considered to be the prime period in a hockey player’s career, so what can we (and should we) expect to see from these two in coming years? I asked Terry Murray what he felt each of them could do in order to elevate themselves next season…

MURRAY: “By taking on ownership of the hockey club. That’s going to be very important for these young guys, and those two players in particular, to be able to exert their authority, their experience, their desire to want to be a hockey player individually and their desire for this team to be moved up into the top tier of teams in this league. That only happens whenever you have your young guys starting to take over ownership of your hockey club. Meaning that Kopitar is going to push his linemates, going to push other lines. Doughty is the same way. He’s going to demand more from the back-end guys. He’s going to be more demanding of the team in critical situations, in the locker room. Whenever you have those players, who are the key, core guys, get to that point, then, as a team and as an organization, you really do take the next step.”

As a follow-up, Murray was asked whether he felt Doughty and Kopitar did enough of that this season…

MURRAY: “It’s a process. That’s a long process. That’s a comfort level that you, as a player, start to feel. I sensed a little bit of it at times. I did have a meeting with Kopi, probably going back a month and a half, two months ago, about that concept. But you, as a player, you have to start to feel very comfortable in your own skin in order to do that. So if you’re going to feel comfortable, you have to go do it on the ice pretty consistently. That’s when you can start to bring that back into the locker room, because you’re backing yourself up. You’re backing your demands up now.”

Doughty and Kopitar were also asked about their respective seasons. First, Doughty was asked whether he exceeded his own expectations for this season…

DOUGHTY: “Yeah, a little bit. I obviously didn’t expect to be nominated for this Norris or anything like that. It was pretty unbelievable to be able to do that, and I still can’t really believe that I am, but it was a good season. I was really happy with how I played. Obviously there were times when I wish I could have done things better, but overall I thought it was a good season.”

Question: Are there still things you think you can improve on in your game?

DOUGHTY: “Oh yeah, I’ve got to improve on a lot of things. I’m always working on my shot. My shot improved so much from last year, but I still think it has even more room for improvement. I want to get it to that spot where it’s hard enough that guys are scared to block it, like a Shea Weber shot or something like that. Obviously I want to get in the best condition I can. I’ve still got a ways to go there. I’ve still got the baby fat, or whatever you want to to call it, so I’ll see what I can do to work that off and be able to become a man, I guess.”

Also, Kopitar was asked about his game, and whether he felt he has a higher ceiling that he can reach in coming years…

KOPITAR: “I’m a pretty ambitious person, and I don’t get satisfied when I don’t reach the top. Until I do that, my goals are going to get higher and higher. Obviously at some point you hit the (ceiling) or whatever, but I think there’s another level of me, and I’ve got to bring it out.”

And how to get that done?

KOPITAR: “Just with the series of workouts that I did last summer, I really felt better on the ice this year than I did in previous years. I felt stronger and faster, so I’ll keep on going like that, keep upgrading everything and hopefully getting in even better shape.”

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