Kings defenseman Drew Doughty talks about the honor of playing for Team Canada at the World Cup

Kings defenseman Drew Doughty talked Thursday about what it means to play for Team Canada in the World Cup of Hockey next fall in Toronto. He helped Canada win gold in the Sochi Olympics in 2014 and the World Cup is another chance for him to showcase his country’s national game, and on home soil, too.

“Obviously, it’s an honor,” Doughty said. “It’s something you dream of and for it to be in Toronto, in your home country, it’s even that much more special. You look forward to playing teams like Sweden. I think they have one of the best teams there. They have a lot of talented players. They’re a good team. We played them in the gold-medal game in Sochi, so we’ll have a little bit of a rivalry there.

“And, obviously, one against the States. We’ve played against them since we were little kids. That’ll be fun to play against that team.”

Doughty said he expected Ducks rival Corey Perry, a summer golfing buddy, to be named at a later day. Perry wasn’t among the 16 players selected Wednesday to the preliminary roster. P.K. Subban of the Montreal Canadiens was another who wasn’t on the initial Team Canada roster.

“They named the top 16 they think they have at this time, not that those guys won’t make the team in the future or anything like that, but they could only name 16 or guys like that would be on the team,” Doughty said of Perry and Subban.

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