Off the toughest injury of his career, Drew Doughty’s time is coming for the LA Kings

Typically in Michigan the saying is Go Blue.

Perhaps, ever so faintly, Blue sounds a bit more like Drew today at Little Caesars Arena.

Today marked Drew Doughty’s fourth consecutive day in a full-contact capacity. It was exciting when he re-joined the team in a non-contact jersey after he was away since September. It was exciting when he shed the red jersey and progressed to that regular jersey on Wednesday. It was exciting when he joined the team on this current roadtrip, his first travel of the season with the chance of playing.

On the list of exciting things regarding Doughty’s return towards the lineup, I suppose today does not rank all that highly – his first interview since September.

But hey, it’s another part of the process.

Doughty spoke for around 10 minutes after practice today, talking mostly with the FanDuel Sports Network broadcasting crew – and LAKI, of course.

While it’s not necessarily a sign that he’s playing tomorrow, it’s a sign that he continues to be close to being game ready. Doughty wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t close and the optimism remains that he will make his season debut sometime over the next four games.

While we still don’t know when it ultimately will happen, it will be quite the rewarding feeling for a player who has put so much into getting back to this point.

“It’s sucked, I’m not going to lie,” Doughty said. “It’s very repetitive, you have to work your bag off, even just to get something back like mobility, that’s a lot of hard work to get back. The hard work just never stops. I’m in the gym every day doing that stuff, now I’m getting bag [skated] here every day and this is kind of the point where I’m almost at my tipping point where I just want to play a game. I’m sick of doing this stuff. I’ve had a good mentality for most of it, but right now, it’s kind of been the toughest point for me.”

When the time comes, whether that be tomorrow or at a later point on the trip, it will be an accomplishment, when considering what a long road it’s been.

Right after Doughty learned he had a fractured ankle – and he said he knew right away that it was probably broken – his day-to-day was very minimal. He wasn’t able to do much of anything at that time. Then came a slow and steady progression, coming at what felt like a snail’s pace.

“It takes a while where you’re not really able to do anything, you’re just sitting on the table getting work done by your therapist and then eventually start getting out,” he detailed.” You start working on mobility and then once that comes, then it’s getting your strength back. Then, eventually, you get to skate and then obviously, as the skating goes, eventually get to play.”

Throughout his time not in the lineup, Doughty cited family time as being the silver lining to the entire process. He spent more time with his kids than he might have otherwise, especially when considering how many road games the Kings played in the first half of the season.

He said the extra family time helped to take his mind off of things when he needed it.

“If I didn’t have them, I would have been in one,” he said. “I never got in a deep hole throughout this process. Right now is my toughest time, because I feel like I’m ready to play but I’m not playing yet. I honestly went through it pretty well. I didn’t have any deep ends or anything like that and I think that’s a lot to do with my family. I had a lot of support from back home, from my friends, from people in organization and obviously my teammates.”

From a rehabilitation standpoint, it’s been unlike anything Doughty has had to go through as a professional, so that support was welcomed and needed. He had two serious injuries during the 2021-22 season that limited him to 39 regular-season games and cost him the chance to play in the postseason. Other than that, though, it’s been a relatively clean bill of health for a very durable player.

Doughty said that while he missed around the same number of games that season, this one was different because it was one injury, compared to two separate ones in 21-22. As such, while he missed the playoffs, neither absence was as long as this one has been, which has complicated the process.

“When you don’t play for that long, you start questioning how am I going to play when I return, and how am I going to feel when I return,” he said. “Doubt starts creeping into your mind, which is never a good thing, but as much as I have thought about that, I feel confident that I’m going to be as good as I’ve always been and I’ve done a lot of work to get ready for this point, so I’m excited.”

While fighting against the injury has been difficult, for a player who is the ultimate competitor, fighting against himself has been maybe just as difficult.

He admitted he feels like he is probably close to being ready to play but as Jim Hiller said yesterday, it’s got to be 100 percent in agreement from Doughty, the coaching staff and the training staff. Until everyone is on the same page unquestionably, Doughty won’t play.

And look, he understands it. As he put it today, what’s another couple of games, in the grand scheme of things. That doesn’t make it any easier, though, for a competitor like Doughty.

He relishes the key moments within a game. If he was on the ice for the game-tying goal in Columbus yesterday you’d have heard his reaction from the press box. It’s what he lives for professionally. Not being out there with his teammates has certainly been a challenge and as he’s gotten closer, that feeling has only grown. He’s doing what he can, though, to understand the bigger picture.

“That’s what they keep telling me, they’re protecting me against me, they’re not protecting me against my ankle or anything, it’s just me,” Doughty said. “I would have loved to play already. I get it. I’m not [complaining], I just really want to play, so I’m frustrated to be honest, but I’ll play eventually.”

While several aspects of the last four months have been difficult, in some ways it’s what will ultimately make his eventual return to the lineup rewarding.

For a future Hockey Hall of Famer, the standard is sky high.

Doughty holds himself to the standard of being the team’s number-one defenseman each and every night. The standard of playing against and shutting down the other team’s best players on a shift-to-shift basis. On leading the team in minutes and handling as many as are thrown his way. On leading both the power play and penalty kill efforts.

On Night 1, that probably won’t be Doughty’s role. He hasn’t played a game this season and missed the bulk of training camp with the fractured ankle. He’s got to ramp things up gradually, not all at once. Jim Hiller has said that the Kings plan is definitely to ease Doughty back into things, at least at the start. Hiller estimated somewhere in the 12 – 15 minute range for the first game, which is somewhere around half of what Doughty has logged throughout his career……although he joked he’d probably bet the over in that scenario.

Both in terms of immediate role and responsibility, as well as game sharpness, Doughty has fought against himself to keep his expectations reasonable. He understands that he doesn’t want to come back and play nine minutes a night. That’s part of why he hasn’t played yet.

“I’m not going to play nine minutes or something like that, or I don’t want to anyway, and I don’t think that’s what they want,” Doughty added. “That’s why I’m not necessarily playing right now, is because they want me to come in and be able to play close to 15, 20 minutes and then, eventually, just keeping increasing from there. I know when I get out there, I’m going to be looking over my shoulder being like, ‘I’m ready to go out for another shift’ so that’s part of the reason they want me 100 percent ready to be able to have the minutes, to be able to play the way I need to play.”

When the time ultimately comes, what a boost it will be for the team. Doughty is an elite player, but he’s also a leader and a lively personality in the room. We’ve already seen some of the boost just his presence has given everyone. Now, the game-to-game waiting game continues. Another chance to see tomorrow. If not, while it’ll be killing him inside, Doughty will remain eager and patient.

Because his time is coming and everyone knows it.