Doughty takes “complete blame” for Malone’s goal

Drew Doughty’s honesty is remarkable when considering the on-record locker room conversation between professional athletes and reporters occasionally has a tendency to gravitate towards familiar sports euphemisms.

Doughty’s turnover during the first shift of Tuesday’s 5-1 loss to Tampa Bay set events in motion that led to a Ryan Malone goal 19 seconds after the opening faceoff. At Thursday’s morning skate, Doughty offered a veteran’s take in accepting blame for a pair of early season goals – the other goal referenced was likely Brad Richards’ second goal against Los Angeles in the season opener – that the Kings have conceded.

Doughty, on what he took from the last game, and what he’s looking to do tonight:
To be honest, in the last game I think we could have easily won that game. [Reporter: Second period chances?] That [disallowed] goal. We need to bear down on our chances. Our power play needs to score goals. Our power play was pretty good, but the bottom line is you need to score goals, and that’s what we’re there to do. So that can be better. And then our top players need to be our top players, so you’ve got me going out there first shift, making that mistake right off the bat, putting our team behind the eight ball…That’s happened twice now. Two of the goals this year have been my fault, and I take complete blame for that. Even though I do make those mistakes once in a while, I have to be able to take the team on my back, forget about it and take over the game. I try to. So if we’ve got Quickie back there playing stellar, got our top forwards playing well, our top D-men playing well, I don’t think too many teams are going to beat us.

Doughty, on ways to step fast starts by the home team when on the road:
Just getting on the forecheck early. I think that’s the most important thing. Winniong that faceoff is huge. You win that faceoff, you get the puck up to your forwards, get the puck in, get a couple of big bangs right off the bat. It doesn’t really take the energy out of the crowd, but the guys on Nashville tonight wouldn’t be able to use that energy because they wouldn’t be banging us in our zone. Every time that first hit of the game happens in the home building, the whole crowd goes nuts. That’s definitely one of the first things we need to do, and then after that first good shift, we need to continue. Every line needs to come out and have a really good shift.