Speaking of which, this is the perfect Segway to Kyle Clifford and Jordan Nolan signing a contract extension with the team. A team cannot win THE Stanley Cup without some role players who provide energy and power, despite playing less minutes than the star players do. Kyle Clifford and Jordan Nolan were and still are important pieces to the successful Los Angeles Kings machine that has won (and say it with me) 2 Stanley Cups in 3 years. Clifford, who plays with such passion and heart it makes you wish more players had those attributes naturally, was instrumental with a secondary assist in the double overtime Stanley Cup winning goal by Alec Martinez last season. Nolan, who played less in last year’s playoffs was an important factor in the King’s first Stanley Cup win in 2012 when he and Dwight King were called up from the farm (the minor league’s not Dean’s) and added some much-needed size and depth to the King’s wings. Keeping these players with the Kings will only be beneficial on either the roster or if Lombardi decides to use them as trade bait as rumors are still circulating that many teams (including the struggling one here by my hometown) are very interested in Kyle Clifford.
Both Clifford and Nolan are originally from towns near me here (especially Clifford, whose hometown of Ayr, ON is only 15 minutes from my house) and that reminds me of another King’s player that also lived close to me (and still does in the off-season in London, ON) and that is all-star Drew Doughty. My wife and I while hanging outside the TSC with 2 of our friends were fortunate enough to meet Doughty after practice and I even got to chance to have a conversation with him (and by conversation I mean the event as follows … )
Doughty walks out of the Toyota Sports Center after a hard-working practice and makes his way towards his car. My wife, 2 friends and I noticed his presence and I immediately acknowledged him,
“Hey Dewy!” I shouted.
Both my wife and Doughty himself looked at me with a disapproving sharp glance and I immediately regret calling him by his nickname as if we already personally knew each other. We are joined by a mother with her 2 lovely children, a boy and a girl. The girl was celebrating her birthday that day and after she showed Doughty her home-made birthday sign during practice, Doughty had decided to give her his hockey stick as a gift. The girl was ecstatic! Now she was there with the same stick and hoping to get an autograph and possibly a picture with him? My wife was hoping for an autograph and picture as well as “Dewy”… um I mean Mr. Doughty is her favorite player. Worried that I may have messed things up for them by scaring him off, I think of a quick (not Jonathan) solution and say,
“Hi Mr. Doughty! We came all the way from Ontario, Canada and used to watch you play with the Guelph Storm!”
The Storm was his OHL junior team before he was drafted by the Kings. Whether this made Doughty do what he did next or not, we will never fully know but Doughty responded with a, “CooOOOoolll!,” walked over to us and signed the little girl’s hockey stick and my wife’s jersey while allowing me to take pictures of him with them (I didn’t get a picture with him myself as I let my wife have all the glory…this time).
Doughty then left and we were all left satisfied. After telling some of our other friends that are from LA that we met Drew Doughty and showing them the pictures, I was informed that getting Doughty to sign an autograph and take a picture after practice was near impossible to accomplish and they were all amazed and dumbfounded how we had pulled that off? Good luck and timing I guess, or maybe my mentioning of us being from Ontario and watching him play with the Storm had something to do with it, maybe it was because of the cute kids, I really have no idea but whatever the reason was, Drew Doughty left a positive lasting impression to us that only made our California adventure holiday trip all the more special … that is until they lost to Ottawa and Anaheim before our very eyes!
Next week, I reveal my “conversations” with Daryl Evans, Martin Jones, Jonathan Quick, Matt Greene and the one and only Anze Kopitar! Plus my thoughts and reactions to the upcoming games against the Pittsburgh Penguins, Colorado Avalanche and Vancouver Canucks, plus Los Angeles Kings legend Luc Robitaille finally gets his own statue! All this and more … STAY TUNED!!!
Stay with us at Calisportsnews.com as we will keep you up-to-date on all things Los Angeles Kings and the rest of the LA sports teams! All Cali, All the time!
