Doughty’s Olympic experience

After today’s morning skate, Drew Doughty talked about his experience of winning a gold medal with Canada in the Olympics…

Question: Is your head still spinning a little, just two days after the game?

DOUGHTY: “A little bit. The emotions are still running high, I guess you could say. I had a great time. We had a lot of pressure on us there, for Canada to win that gold medal, and when we finally did, it was a big stone off our back. We had a lot of fun with it, and it was a great time.”

Question: Can you talk a bit about how your game progressed during the tournament?

DOUGHTY: “I went in there as the seventh D-man, so I wasn’t playing as much as I’m obviously used to in L.A., but I wanted to work my way up and get into the top five or four there. After that, I felt a lot more comfortable. Coach would put me out there in key situations, so I think from that point on, I played a lot better.”

Question: Was it similar, at all, to your experiences playing in the World Juniors?

DOUGHTY: “In a way, I guess the tournament format was the same, but no comparison in the games. That was some of the hardest hockey I’ve played. That final game was just so fast and pretty much flawless. There weren’t too many mistakes made, and when they were made, the puck was going in the net. It was a great game, and one of the hardest I’ve played in, for sure.”

Question: You were one of the first people to get to Sidney Crosby after he scored the winning goal. What was that moment like?

DOUGHTY: “It was just so different. Obviously them tying it up with 23 seconds left, you’re 23 seconds away from winning the gold medal and they tie it up. You just feel like someone ripped your heart out. But after that, when we did get that goal, chills immediately run through your body. I jumped as high as I could and got right to him.”

Question: Did you have a lot of friends and family there?

DOUGHTY: “I had quite a few people there, like 10 people. My parents, my sister, my grandparents, my billet parents, two of my buddies and my uncle was there. So I had a lot of family and friends there supporting me, and they had just as much fun as I did.”

Question: Did you get to experience some of the Olympics, other than hockey?

DOUGHTY: “I definitely mingled with the other athletes around the village and stuff like that. So we had fun that way, but to get to other events was pretty tough. Tickets were expensive and finding time to do that was pretty hard, so it was mostly hockey with the events for me.”

Question: Now you flip the switch and come back to the NHL. Is there some fatigue, or are you excited to get back to important NHL games?

DOUGHTY: “I guess it would have been nice to have had a little break, but obviously we’d rather win the gold medal. Now that we’re back here, we’re excited to get going again. The Kings haven’t been in the playoffs for a while, and it would be nice to get them there.”