LAK CAMP: A PAINFUL LESSON IN ANATOMY

LOS ANGELES, CA — Maybe it’s something in the air in Los Angeles.

When it comes to professional sports, the local teams have been overrun with significant injuries in 2024. The Dodgers had enough quality to overcome the absence of seven pitchers (!) to win another National League West Division title. The Rams season started inauspiciously with injuries to both Pro Bowl wide receivers and three starting offensive linemen.

The Los Angeles Kings joined them on injury woes front while still in the midst of training camp.

Early in camp, winger Arthur Kaliyev, who needed a strong preseason to salvage his Los Angeles career, took a hit from newly acquired defenceman Kyle Burroughs and suffered a fractured clavicle that may result in another lost season. But with depth along the wing with Tanner Jeannot and Warren Foegele joining via trade and unrestricted free agency, respectively, and Alex Turcotte and Akil Thomas ready for prime time, the impact from Kaliyev’s loss (which likely sidelines him until mid-season) is lessened.

But on Wednesday night, in a city where professional boxing is mainstream, the Kings received a proverbial body shot from which they are still recovering.

On a play Drew Doughty has made hundreds of times, his luck was bad as he engaged former King and current Vegas Golden Knight PTO attendee Tanner Pearson in a puck battle in the Kings’ defensive zone. The collision looked nothing out of the ordinary, but when Doughty’s skate hit the boards at a bad angle the result was a fractured right ankle that will sideline him for months.

The word is that although the injury causes major shockwaves, Doughty has avoided further damage as the surrounding areas to the ankle (Achilles and tendons) appear to have escaped injury. 

While the news is optimistic when it comes to a returning timeline, you can’t minimize the loss regardless of length. The Kings’ room was understandably subdued on Thursday post practice in light of losing their most vocal leader. The impact of the loss of Doughty is massive; while he may not be the team’s most valuable player, he’s the most difficult to replace. If Anze Kopitar went down, Phil Danault and Quinton Byfield (now full-time in the middle) could pick up the slack. If a top-six winger was sidelined, there’s enough quality to minimize the absence.

But there’s simply no replacement for Drew Doughty.

Burroughs will get the first shot at the spot next to Mikey Anderson and though some may cringe at his ugly minus-42 rating last season, it was more a function of a San Jose Sharks team that iced an AHL-level caliber of talent than individual poor play. Burroughs’ numbers in the two seasons he played for the Vancouver Canucks is more representative of his play, but the reality is that if Doughty was healthy, Burroughs would not be in the Kings top-six defence.

In the big picture, some thought the Kings would regress from the 99-point total of last season even with Doughty. Los Angeles stands to be a different looking team this season, getting more toughness and size from Jeannot and defenceman Joel Edmundson and more speed on the wing with Foegele.

Despite losing six players from last season’s roster, they only lost 46 combined goals from those departures, so the argument could be made that the offence could improve over its 16th place ranking. But with Doughty’s 15 goals (seven on the powerplay) also needing to be replaced, the task of improving the offence becomes more difficult. Jordan Spence should take a more prominent role offensively and elevate both his scoring (2G, 24A in 71 games, 14:26 time-on-ice) but the most intriguing decision is how Brandt Clarke will be deployed.

The organization has promised an increasing role for the 2021 eighth-overall pick this season and the opportunity to unleash Clarke fully to compensate for Doughty’s loss is there. But given Clarke has just 25 games of NHL experience and head coach Jim Hiller not convinced he can manage 15-17 minutes per game every game, Clarke will likely remain on the third pair with Edmundson to start. But if you know anything about Clarke, you know he’s yearning to play 18+ minutes a night to help shore up Doughty’s absence.

“I’m up for the challenge. I’m being thrown in the deep end, but I don’t mind that at all. I’ve done that before (playing big minutes in a game) and it’s going to be fun. I’m in the best shape of my life,” Clarke said.

With all the talk about his offensive skill, to get those 18+ minutes, Clarke will need to prove he can defend NHL forwards on a nightly basis. His off-season was focused on that aspect of his game.

“Gap control, ending plays before the blueline and (assistant coach DJ Smith) has been saying to try and stop the play before the red line, so that’s even more of a challenge,” Clarke related. “Boxing out (opposing forwards at net front) is a big (area of focus), there were times last season when I was knocked off in front of the net and (the opponent) freed their stick or rebound. I want to be more sturdy.”

Though Hiller told me earlier in camp that he wasn’t ready to take the reins fully off Clarke, Doughty’s injury may change his thinking. When I asked if he was willing to graduate Clarke to significantly more playing time, he left the door open.

“If he earns them, I’d be happy to give him 20 minutes (a night),” Hiller stated. “We are not going to overthink this; we’re going to play our best players. Focusing a little bit more on defence was the message (Clarke) left with for the summer with. He’s done exactly that, the growth I’ve seen in the short period of time from when he left until now, it’s impressive he’s dialed in.”

It wouldn’t be a surprise to see GM Rob Blake turn to external options. Unrestricted free agents Justin Schultz and Kevin Shattenkirk are two possibilities for additional help, but neither would provide the defensive presence missing Doughty provides.

What won’t occur organizationally is a retrenching back to the familiar 1-3-1, a suggestion proposed given the absence of Doughty and Matt Roy (who left via free agency) on the right-side defense.

Adding to the mix is the bear of a schedule the Kings open the season with. A seven-game roadtrip is on the horizon due to continuing renovations at Crypto.com Arena and while the team is saying the right things (trip is an opportunity to bond, home and road schedule always even out), starting the season’s first two weeks with every opponent having the advantage of the last change isn’t what you want for a team whose best defenceman is missing.

The usual goal for teams on extended roadtrip is playing .500 hockey, so seven points in seven games (only three against last season playoff qualifiers – Boston, Toronto and Vegas) to open the season would be reasonable, but only if the defence elevates its performance.

With the Western Conference increasingly difficult (the non-qualifiers in the West all look to be improved except for Calgary), coming home with anything significantly less than a .500 roadtrip could send the season in a different direction.

The opening pair of games in Buffalo (where the Kings never play well) and Boston (always a tough game but Clarke won last season’s match in Beantown with his first NHL goal) may not be pretty, but by the time they get to the last of the seven in Vegas, a true picture of an LA Kings defence without Drew Doughty will form.