While the rest of his teammates did nothing to pad their stats, Drew Doughty was busy stealing goals from Ryan Smyth on Thursday.
Doughty was credited with his fifth and sixth goals of the season Thursday, and Ryan Smyth had his 20th and 21st goals of the season taken away, after the NHL decided that Smyth did not, in fact, deflect Doughty’s shots into the Edmonton Oilers’ net Wednesday.
Michal Handzus and Anze Kopitar are now getting the secondary assists on Doughty’s goals. Smyth goes from a two-goal night to a zero-point night. He is now mired in a two-game point drought.
Speaking of Doughty, check out this interview Taylor Hall did with TSN after last night’s game, completely downplaying the “rivalry” with Doughty that apparently is not on.
J.P. Barry, the agent for goaltender Ray Emery, said that “three or four” teams are kicking the tires on his client, who is attempting a comeback from major hip surgery that ended his 2009-10 season. The Kings are not one of those teams.
Asked in a text message this morning if the Kings had any interest in Emery, general manager Dean Lombardi replied with a simple “no.”
Although the 28-year-old Emery would seem like a bit of a risk, and the Kings have both of their young goalies under contract through 2012-13, it’s a worthwhile question. When Erik Ersberg bolted for the KHL in October, the Kings were left with no other goalies in the system with prior NHL experience. That’s a trait that NHL teams covet in their “third goalie”; assistant GM Ron Hextall said as much in an October interview. If Jonathan Quick or Jonathan Bernier went down with an injury, the most logical replacement within the organization would be Martin Jones, who turned 21 last month. Jones is having a fine season (17-5-1, 2.17 GAA, .930 save %) with Manchester and recently appeared in the AHL All-Star Game. Perhaps he’s inspired enough confidence this season to earn that emergency call-up without a second guess.
The Ducks (who are in the same position goalie-wise as the Kings) are known to be interested in Emery.
