Doughty’s `power’ numbers

Drew Doughty’s play has been discussed at great length, and for a defenseman, it’s often not about the statistics. But sometimes it is. Doughty has one goal and six assists in 19 games, putting him on pace for a three-goal, 20-assist season. That would be a steep reduction from last season’s 16 goals and 43 assists. Why the dip, so far? Power play is a huge factor. Last season, nine of Doughty’s 16 goals, and 22 of his 43 assists, came on the power play. This season, Doughty has one power-play goal and one power-play assist. Of course, Doughty is far from alone on the Kings when it comes to poor power-play production. After today’s practice, Terry Murray was asked, in general, whether he has been surprised by Doughty’s lack of production this season…

MURRAY: “Yeah, I am. I’m surprised. I think the way the pucks were going into the net for him last year, and the way the offensive part of the game was really coming together, that there would be more production at this time. It’s hard to (find) one reason why. I think there’s a reluctance to shoot the puck on the power play, where we’re looking to make plays. I think we’ve talked about that many times already this year. We’re looking to pass the puck into the net rather than shoot it. There’s been quite a few looks, on the power plays, where the play is continually being pushed down to the goal line, to the low play, the cycles, and that does not include the defensemen, obviously. So we’ve been encouraging getting it back up to the blue line, to those shooters, those quarterbacks. Get it in their hands more consistently, and I think with that attitude, it will start to happen for them.”

Yesterday, Murray seemed to be warming to a more-permanent pairing of Doughty and Rob Scuderi, noting how often Doughty seems to get the puck on his stick when playing with Scuderi. Today, I asked Murray whether he would think about keeping Doughty and Scuderi together when Willie Mitchell — Doughty’s previous partner, before Mitchell’s injury — returns to the lineup…

MURRAY: “I haven’t gotten that far yet. I like Scuderi with him, and I’m kind of leaning toward that, even when Mitchell does get back into the lineup. You kind of play it as it comes, and see how everybody is going at that time. There’s reasons why you change D pairs and line combinations. You’re just trying to get the right look, and some chemistry happening, if things aren’t going right. I think that whenever Scuderi is with Doughty, there is a real sense that, `I’m going to put the puck on his stick as often as I possibly can, and let him get on the move with it.”’