Kings' Drew Doughty slams media for taking quotes out of context

When Drew Doughty speaks people tend to listen, but unfortunately we may never hear from this man publicly again.

I’m (pretty) sure that won’t be the case, but the Los Angeles Kings star was as heated and cynical towards reporters as ever on Tuesday when discussing what he feels has been unfair treatment by Toronto and Vancouver media.

Specifically, Doughty referenced this clip captured Monday after the Kings’ practice in Toronto, where the two-time Stanley Cup champion offered his thoughts on what it takes to win a title.

After careful consideration, surely knowing the market he was visiting, Doughty belted out some seemingly harmless words of advice.

“Yeah you have to - your entire team has to play different. I’m trying to think how I’m going to say this, but you need to count on every single guy in every single situation.

“If any team wants to be successful in the playoffs they need their top scorers playing good defence, and they need their best defenders chipping in on the offence, that’s the only way you’re going to win.

Leafs fans and media, as expected, had a field day with those quotes, and Doughty took exception after LA’s morning skate on Wednesday to how his words were, in his opinion, twisted to fit a certain narrative.

"I wasn't commenting on Toronto at all. I was just commenting on winning the Stanley Cup in general," Doughty said.

“You guys want us to be able to say things and to be honest with you, and then you’re going to go run with it and you know (we) just get attacked by it. Like yesterday I didn’t even know I said anything bad, then it’s like ‘here we go again’ so I don’t even know what to say.”

Whether his words or the meaning behind them were twisted in any way is up for debate, but this isn’t the first time this season that Doughty thought he was taken out of context. After the Kings got blown out by the Canucks a few weeks ago, he offered this nugget.

“It’s (expletive) just embarrassing. A team like that should not be beating a team like ours 8-2, there’s absolutely no way."

On Tuesday, while fanning the flames of his Leafs-centric quotes the day prior, Doughty went off on the Vancouver and national media who made that latter soundbite a story.

"The guy's an idiot that made all that happen. What I was trying to say there is they're a young team, we're an old team, and we lost the game like 8-1 and that's just ridiculous for a veteran team. Just standard people making it run."

TSN’s Blake Price adamantly denied Doughty’s sentiment with a strong response via Twitter:

Whether you believe Doughty is right or wrong here, it’s pretty clear nobody wins when one of the game’s most outspoken stars is threatening to, well, stop speaking.

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