Doughty, and his mane, ready to go

Drew Doughty is ready to go for opening night, so what was all that summer worrying about? (Just a little joke.) Here’s a nice Doughty vignette. His hair is quite long — almost Westgarthian — so I asked him today what was going on. A new style? Superstition? The answer: “I was expecting to be in L.A. a lot sooner, and I just didn’t have time to visit my hair stylist.” So it was a rough summer for everyone… But it seems Doughty is ready to go, after one exhibition game and a handful of practices. I asked Terry Murray today whether there would be any restrictions on Doughty’s minutes in the season opener.

MURRAY: “I had a conversation with Drew the other day, after his game (in Hamburg) and asked him how he was doing, how he was feeling. He felt very comfortable in the exhibition game against Hamburg. I have confidence that he’s going to be able to log the minutes that we need to have from him. He’s energized. He’s really enthusiastic. He’s excited about his new deal, about being part of the team again with a long-term commitment. Again, he’s very energized, and we’ll take advantage of that. He’s a great player and we’ll get him the minutes that we feel we need to get from him in this first game against the Rangers.”

Question: How did he look to you in that game against Hamburg?

MURRAY: “I thought he was good. We dressed eight defensemen, so there wasn’t a great demand we were going to put on him. But I thought, overall, he was sharp. He moves the puck, he sees the ice. He just looked like Drew Doughty. He’s a young guy, 21, and to me he worked hard over the time that he was away. You take advantage of the adrenaline and the emotion, and he looked good.”