Drew Doughty on where his hatred stands for the Canucks

In one of the more memorable quotes from last season, Drew Doughty told MayorsManor his hatred for the Vancouver Canucks was at a 10 – when using a 1-to-10 scale. While that might have stoked the flames for many hockey fans in British Columbia, he wasn’t necessarily ready to back off those statements earlier today when we did a temperature check following the Kings’ morning practice.

“It’s not that I hate the guys on the team,” Doughty began with. “You pretty much hate all the guys on every team when you play them. You learn to do that on the ice. It’s a battle, it’s a war.”

Is there a little something extra with the Canucks though?

“Not only is it their personnel that you learn to dislike,” Doughty explained.  “It’s the fact that they keep winning the conference every year. You’re going to hate any good team just because they have that cockiness. But, they have a swagger about them that we don’t like, and we want to show them that we can be the better team. That’s why I think tonight is going to be a big battle.”

Doughty went on to say that although he’s disappointed Willie Mitchell won’t have the chance to play against his former club tonight, he’s sure it has to be frustrating.

“You know Mitchie wants nothing more than to be in the line-up,” Doughty proclaimed. “I think everyone would tell you that no hockey player loves going to the game every night and watching from the press box. You just feel so hungry to be out there, so I’m sure he really badly wanted to be back in for this game. But, it’s unfortunate that we’re not going to have him and we’re just hoping that he recovers soon.”

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