As Drew Doughty approaches 1,000, Brown and Kopitar reflect back to their own, ahead to their teammate’s

LA Kings defenseman Drew Doughty is approaching the latest milestone in a career full of them: Regular-Season Game #1000.

Now, Doughty has certainly played more than 1,000 games already in his professional career. If you count postseason contests, he’d have reached it some time ago, not to mention how many times he has represented Team Canada on the Olympic, World Cup or World Championships stage. Doughty has reached the doorstep of an incredible milestone, all while averaging an NHL record 26:14 during NHL play, making him one of the most traveled players to reach the milestone for sure.

“As many extra games as Drew has, with all the playoff runs, exhibition season, Olympics, World Cups, they never go into that 1,000-game total,” Kings Head Coach Todd McLellan said. “Drew surpassed 1,000 games a long time ago, we just don’t acknowledge it, but the actual 1,000th in the regular season is meaningful to him.”

1,000 regular-season games IS meaningful. It’s a celebration of longevity, a celebration of status and a celebration of achievement. For some players, it takes an entire career to achieve. For some it takes several teams but for others like Doughty, it came with one team, as it did for Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown.

I spoke with the Kings veterans on their experiences playing in their 1000th games respectively, giving a sense of what Doughty might be thinking himself. What better guide than those who have lived it!

The Build Up
Speaking with Kopitar and Doughty, both players talked about how their approach to the 1,000-game milestone was.

Both players had pretty similar thoughts. As you approach that day, it’s one that you know exactly where it is on the calendar. Doughty’s midseason injury changed his date, as did his spell in COVID Protocol, but once he returned, it was always looking at tomorrow’s game against the Islanders.

“You kind of just want to get it over with, to be honest with you,” Brown said “It’s 1,000 games, it’s a huge milestone, it’s a huge mark, but at the end of all of it, it’s just another game, it just happens to be [numerically] special. You go from there, and then once you get through it, there’s just a little bit of weight that gets lifted off, whether it’s media or ceremonies.”

The path leading in can be challenging for a few reasons. Interview requests ramp up, family members come into town to watch the game and as the numbers add up, and the calendar days tick off, the thoughts heading into that game increase.

For Kopitar, he compared the differences between reaching 1,000 games versus scoring 1,000 points. With the point, it was a moment that could come at any time. The game was different for Kopitar, who also referenced the build-up coming in.

“The build up, you know when it’s happening, like I said it’s slowly coming, as opposed to a point, that you never know when you’re going to have two points, three points and reach it,” Kopitar said. “It definitely hits different, but I think both of those things are milestones that will be after the fact when you look at them, remember them. They’re very special at the time, but I think it’s probably going to hit even better when it’s all said and done.”

Todd McLellan has been behind the bench for his share of 1,000th games played. He put his trust in Brown and Kopitar’s experiences as being the ones that Doughty will be likely to experience himself.

“I think we’d have to take their knowledge, being Brownie and Kopi, their experience with it and understand it,” McLellan said. “There’s probably a lot that goes into getting your family in, plans for this or that, dinner, whatever it might be.”

The Game
“I do believe that when Drew puts the equipment on, there will be a nostalgic thought or two that goes through his head, but the puck’s going to drop and he’s going to do what he’s done 1,000 times already and it becomes another night.”

McLellan has been through enough of these as a coach to have trust in Doughty, that while he knows his defenseman will embrace the moment, he’ll also be the usual number one defenseman when the game starts.

As Brown said, “it’s just another game” once you get into the moment. There will likely be an in-game acknowledgment at UBS Arena tomorrow evening, a nice moment with his teammates.

He had the fortune of not only having the career-long accomplishment, but also the in-game accomplishment. Brown scored the overtime winner in a 2-1 victory over Colorado on home ice.

The funny part for Kopitar, looking back, is all he really remembered from the game was that the Kings got “pumped” by Calgary. The Kings lost 7-2 that night at the end of a season in which they were already out of playoff contention.

Different circumstances for Doughty tomorrow, with the defenseman a huge factor for a team that is currently sitting in the midst of a playoff hunt in late-January.

The “Three-O”
What makes Doughty’s accomplishment all the more special are that they came alongside Brown and Kopitar, with the “three-o”, as Kopitar deemed it, experiencing it together. Include Jonathan Quick, who is more or less over 1,000 games when you think about it from a goaltender perspective, and that quartet of individuals has been alongside the others for some special moments.

“There’s not very many three-o’s that have accomplished that,” Kopitar said. “It’s pretty unique what we’ve accomplished, both as a team and as individuals here. We should be excited about that.”

There aren’t many, that’s for sure. The Kings will become the first non-Original Six franchise to have five players play 1,000 games with a single organization, with Dave Taylor and Luc Robitaille joining Brown, Kopitar and Doughty after he hits that 1,000 mark.

In fact, only three trios who have played 14 or more seasons together have played 1,000 games for one franchise.

CHI: Keith – Seabrook – Kane
DET: Draper – Lidstrom – Holmstrom
MTL: Beliveau – Provost – Richard

That total is set to increase to four as Doughty approaches four digits tomorrow evening.

“When you say it, you think about it as pretty cool, I think if me and Kopi been together for 1,000, [Drew]’s been with us for 900, whatever it is, it’s a pretty cool thing,” Brown said. “When you win with guys, that’s what allows us to play together for thousands of games.”

McLellan thought of it as “pretty darn unique” to have three players all reach 1,000 games with the same franchise, playing together for the majority of that time. If you add Quick into the mix, which McLellan does with Quick playing the equivalent of 1,000 for a goaltender, it makes it that much more incredible.

“They’re not still here because they’ve lost a lot, they’re still here because they won a lot,” he said. “That speaks volumes of them.”

We’ll expect to hear from the man himself tomorrow from Long Island, as the Kings are scheduled to face the New York Islanders tomorrow evening at UBS Arena. Doughty’s first game in a new building is set to be his 1,000th overall, with plenty more on Drew to follow over the next few days.