Doughty talks hit on Beauchemin, impact of Nolan’s fight with Souray

Thoughts from Drew Doughty after the Kings 5-2 win over the Ducks…

– On the overall game: “This one feels big, it’s a division game, a team that’s in second place in our conference and a team that we want to eventually catch so to get two points especially in regulation and have a third strong period like that it’s a big momentum booster for the club.”

– On the game being a measuring stick: “Yeah, they’ve been on. I thought we were on in third period especially, kind of on and off for the first two. But I thought they had played great leading up to this game. They were pretty good in the first two (periods), and we played a good game. We’re really happy with that win, but now we’re looking forward to Detroit. Tonight we’re happy with that one.”

– On outworking the Ducks: “I don’t know about the entire stretch, but that’s our main focus every game. We knew that they were a hard forechecking team. They’re going to try and dump pucks in and you know, work as hard as they can and try to make us shy off. But we decided to just give it right back, which is what we wanted. To be the more physical and more competitive team.”

– On Jordan Nolan’s fight: “That was huge. Huge! You know Souray is a huge guy. You know he’s always trying to be an intimidator out there. Always chirping and stuff like that. So for Noles to step up like that and beat a guy that’s bigger and stronger than him. Beat him pretty good too. It was good to see. I was really pumped up after that.”

– On getting a goal right after the fight: “And tied it up. Yeah, Noles gave us some momentum and right after that our next line started flying, and that’s kind of when the game just completely turned around. We got that first one and then the whole third period was ours. So I think that was a big boost of confidence.”

– On his hit on Francois Beauchemin (video clip above): “Just got him good. Our job as D-men on the PK there is have a good gap, and you know if we can hit them, hit them. If not make them dump the puck in, and he kind of held the puck for a little bit too long, and I had my opportunity to hit him; so that’s what I did.”

– On the strong third period effort and if anything was said before: “I don’t think anything was said. We just wanted to come out…You know we constantly kept saying here how important this game was. A team that’s in second place, a division game, and a team that’s hot right now. So for us to win that and come out in that third period. That was the first time I felt like we were clicking like we did last year. And the crowd is going nuts. We just had all the momentum in that third and they had no chance.”

– On the importance of closing the game strong: “It’s huge. You know went up 3-2 there. And then our power play came up with a huge goal, and that’s what our power play is there for. To score goals like that. To kind of put teams out of the game. And I think after that one went in they weren’t coming back as hard as they were before.”

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