Doughty and Sutter on the fight with Sharks Joe Thornton

On October 11, 2008 Drew Doughty made his NHL debut in the Kings season opener at San Jose.

Fast forward to his 314th game last night and it was another memorable moment for Doughty against the Sharks. About seven minutes into a scoreless game, he had his first NHL fight – taking on 6-foot-4 Joe Thornton.

After the game, I asked Doughty what that was all about. “It was a ‘he just wanted to get his team going’ kind of thing. We kind of just cross-checked each other, he speared me and then it was my first fight. I need to learn how to do it a little better. But, it was good to get both teams going.”

When asked how long he was going to be thinking about the overall game, Doughty said – “I’l still be thinking about it when we play them in the next game just because of all the things that went on tonight. It was a rough game out there and we’re expecting the same thing when we go up to San Jose. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

During the post-game press conference with coach Darryl Sutter, he added the following comments when asked for thoughts on the Doughty-Thornton tangle…

“It was kind of retaliation, retaliation. And then away they go. Why not?”

If you missed the altercation, here’s an encore presentation…