Doughty likes how the Kings’ defense is shaping up

There’s a stall in one corner of the Kings’ dressing room in El Segundo that is a touch wider than the other stalls. To its immediate right, there are no other benches or stalls, just the main opening to the hallway that leads towards the ice inside the team’s practice facility. To its left is Drew Doughty’s stall.

In the recent past, that stall has been occupied by Robyn Regehr, Willie Mitchell and Sean O’Donnell, all tenured veterans. This season, Christian Ehrhoff, the second oldest King after Marian Gaborik, is situated there.

Welcome to the Kings, Christian. Enjoy the close proximity to the team’s emotional pulse.

“It’s been fun so far,” Ehrhoff said of sitting next to Doughty. “He’s a funny guy to be around with, and he’s obviously one of the top players in the game right now, and he’s won it all, so I’m sure we’ll have fun along the way.”

With his ability to play on both sides of the ice, Ehrhoff is a versatile and significant piece to rounding out the club’s defensive balance. He’s been skating to the right of Brayden McNabb thus far in training camp, and drew an interesting observation from the head coach on Sunday.

“My memory of him is more of Vancouver,” Darryl Sutter said. “… Vancouver’s style then with Alain as their coach is closer to our style than any team he’s played on since.”

That’s good news for a Kings team that could use a full season from the offensive-minded defenseman and elite skater who set career highs with 14 goals in each of his seasons in Vancouver and topped out at 50 points in 2010-11 when Canucks played all the way to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.

Doughty noted that because they’ve never played together, the two are still getting to know each other well – and all is progressing swimmingly.

“When we are in the room together, yeah, we’ve talked a lot, and he’s going to be a big part to our team. We’re really happy we got him, and he’s a good, veteran player. He’s played for a lot of years,” Doughty said.

The Norris finalist from a season ago also had good things to say about the overall state of the blue line.

“I think our defense is better this year than even last year,” Doughty said. Last year, the Kings tied for fourth in the league with 197 goals against and led the league in possession stats.

“Everyone’s a little bit older, everyone has more experience. Young guys like Nabber, gaining experience for them is really the biggest thing they can have right now. Everyone’s learning, everyone’s getting better, and obviously with the addition of Ehrhoff, and still having our good core defensemen that we signed for a while now, we’re going to be good. Really good.”

Drew Doughty, on what he’s working on personally at the start of camp:
Right now, obviously I’m not at the top level of my game. During the off-season you obviously get on the ice and stuff like that, but you’re not going out there and playing full, five-on-five games like we are in scrimmages here, so you kind of create bad habits – you’re not defending the same way you would in a real game – so I’m just trying to get my defending back, get that back in order, moving the puck, getting my positioning back, and it’s almost there. It’s only going to take me one real game, and I’ll be fine. The exhibition games are important.

Doughty, on Darryl Sutter’s approach to training camp and the preseason:
He’s very demanding of just trying to sharpen up our skills. When we’re in practice, making take to tape passes, having a high pace, having a high intensity – that’s basically right now what he’s been harping on us for. HE hasn’t done anything too crazy, but I’m sure as the [exhibition games] start happening, you’ll see the real Darryl come out, and he’ll start putting his foot down.