Comments for What's Up With Drew Doughty? at http://hockey.dobbersports.com , comment 1 to 8 out of 8 comments http://hockey.dobbersports.com Sat, 25 May 2013 00:57:49 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index.php/columnistsarticles-mainmenu-77/amato/5319-whats-up-with-drew-doughty#comment-24467 One of the big factors for me is % of team points... If you look at the numbers, I think they're beginning to "normalize" with his breakout year being the deviation from the norm. Yes the team factor has played a role, the team changing to a defensive scheme certainly doesn't help but what you have to also consider is that the percentages should stay relatively the same... 27 of 538 (5%) 59 of 639 (9.2%) 40 of 579 (6.9%) 36 of 516 (7%) 8 of 128 (6.3%) An interesting stat (which would be very hard to track since the game is so fast) that I think poolies should look into developing is touches/possessions per game. That would be a good indication of who's actually active as opposed to just "being on the ice." I've watched a few Kings' games over the past few years and the biggest thing that I've noticed is the change in his game. The primary difference between his 2008-09 year and now is [b]how active[/b] he is on the ice. In 2008-09 he was very active touching pucks all the time, getting them on net or dumping them down low, he was always the 2nd last or 3rd last man to touch the puck. During the past few years, he's been a "phantom" player, he touches is once or twice in the offensive zone then passes it down low to Kops, Richards, Brown, Williams or Carter and they do all the work and Doughty misses out on the points when they do score... You can blame that on depth charts or better talent up front, but it's noticeably different between the two years. Until he gets more active and is more involved, as Pengwin said, expect him to stay within the 35-40 point range. Only the select few who are consistently in on the play will garner 45+, but we as poolies suddenly have made that into the "norm". But that's the same mentality as a "point-per-game" player for forwards. Poolies always tend to look for "upside numbers" as opposed to "realistic numbers", which is the trap that many have fallen into with Doughty. - Ryan Ma Mon, 04 Mar 2013 10:41:30 +0100 http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index.php/columnistsarticles-mainmenu-77/amato/5319-whats-up-with-drew-doughty#comment-24466 Great article, Tyler Myers is another example of a defenseman who hasn't lived up to his huge contract. You have to wonder if the big paydays have an influence, as well. - Rad64 Mon, 04 Mar 2013 10:15:45 +0100 http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index.php/columnistsarticles-mainmenu-77/amato/5319-whats-up-with-drew-doughty#comment-24465 no Mitchell or Greene for most of the year maybe forcing Sutter to play Doughty in less than ideal offensive situations. I wonder about his conditioning and maturity,success at an early age does have its pitfalls. Look at Patrick Kane, great first year, then coasted for a few before he got serious again this year- looks like a completely different player. Hopefully Doughty is able to rebound into a top 3 in the league dman again. - Rollie1967 Mon, 04 Mar 2013 09:54:31 +0100 http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index.php/columnistsarticles-mainmenu-77/amato/5319-whats-up-with-drew-doughty#comment-24459 Sorry for the typos! - Isle B. Mon, 04 Mar 2013 06:46:34 +0100 http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index.php/columnistsarticles-mainmenu-77/amato/5319-whats-up-with-drew-doughty#comment-24458 That is a lot of analysis! A shorter answer is that: 1. Doughty is just not play well at all with the puck. He has really lost his offensive touch this season. 2. The Kings are playing without half their defense corps from last's cup run and Doughty has been overworked. 3. The Kings are one of the worst offensive teams in the league right now with the exception of Jeff Carter. 4. The Kings' powerplay has been inneffective and Voynov and Muzzin are getting more and more time at the points. - Isle B. Mon, 04 Mar 2013 06:45:25 +0100 http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index.php/columnistsarticles-mainmenu-77/amato/5319-whats-up-with-drew-doughty#comment-24457 Great piece here. I really enjoyed that you took a look at 2nd assists. I think analyzing 1st vs 2nd assists is something that we don't do enough and could lend some thought towards predicting future years. The biggest thing with Doughty, IMO, is a common mistake we all seem to make. A guy explodes in his 2nd/3rd/4th season and we all decide "oh, that will be his new benchmark - he'll hit that or do better". No, no, no. Even young players can have a good season where things go very right. We should really only consider that there is handful of defensemen that are going to hit 50+pts consistently: Lidstrom, Karlsson, a healthy Letang. Most solid defensemen are going to be consistently in the 40-50 range with a bad year in the 30s and a good year in the mid-to-high 50s. AND for defensemen, so much hinges on the efficiency of their PP (which can fluctuate wildly year-to-year). For example, as of this morning, the highest ranked defenseman in standard Yahoo multi-cat: 66. Kronwall 75. Timonen 78. Ekman-Larsson Pretty much everybody that overinvested in defensemen this year is having a tough go in their pools. Those of us that drafted forwards & goalie-heavy... probably doing a little bit better. Alex Pietrangelo, for example, is ranked as Yahoo #305 (which is an accurate rank). Way too many people saw AP's "breakout year" and dubbed him able to repeat that as his new benchmark. No, no, no. In summary, Doughty is a solid defenseman... but I think he's in a group of about 15-20 defensemen that could all finish between 2nd & 20th in scoring. I think you nailed in in your last paragraph when you say "[i]there is still a realistic possibility he may never reach the heights of 2009-10 again[/i]". So few people accept that a player MAY have his career season in one of his first four... and then not repeat it again. Well done here. Thumbs up. - Pengwin7 Mon, 04 Mar 2013 06:04:33 +0100 http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index.php/columnistsarticles-mainmenu-77/amato/5319-whats-up-with-drew-doughty#comment-24456 Thomas Hickey (NYI) has more goals than Doughty this year. That's sad. - Axeman33 Mon, 04 Mar 2013 05:24:48 +0100 http://hockey.dobbersports.com/index.php/columnistsarticles-mainmenu-77/amato/5319-whats-up-with-drew-doughty#comment-24452 Regarding cup hangover - I think the psychological component of such a beast is often under-considered by poolies - overcoming that isn't a matter of rest - so I think that this is a factor in the Kings offensive production to date. Doughty is still a kid and still learning the game - his big season was perhaps a little flukish, but he will get back to close to that value again. The hype is disappearing but as an owner I am not going to let that cause me to undervalue him as a keeper. - Shoeless Mon, 04 Mar 2013 04:22:59 +0100