Doughty and Quick Leading the Kings with All-Star Caliber Play

On the morning of Jan. 6, the NHL announced the rosters for the 2016 All-Star Game held on Jan. 31 in Nashville, Tennessee. Divided into four divisional teams, each team will be comprised of six forwards, three defensemen and two goalies and defenseman Drew Doughty and goalie Jonathan Quick of the Los Angeles Kings were chosen to represent the Kings on the Pacific Division team.

Three other teams in the Pacific Division (San Jose Sharks, Anaheim Ducks and Calgary Flames) will have two representatives. Forward Taylor Hall will be the lone representative for the Edmonton Oilers, Daniel Sedin for the Vancouver Canucks and despite the great first half the team has had, John Scott will not only be the sole representative of the Arizona Coyotes in the All-Star Game, but will captain the Pacific Division team.

Quick, Doughty named to the All-Star Game. Sutter named as a coach.
— Jon Rosen (@lakingsinsider) 6 Janvier 2016

The NHL will be moving away from the process of All-Star team captains drafting their teams and from the 5v5 even strength format. Instead, the 2016 All-Star Game will be a three-game, 3v3 format tournament. L.A. Kings Head Coach Darryl Sutter will join Doughty and Quick in Nashville as he was appointed the head coach of the Pacific Division All-Star team.

Drew Doughty’s All-Star Start to the Season

In the first 42 games of the season, Doughty has amassed seven goals and 26 points. He leads all Kings’ players on time-on-ice in all situations and is third in the NHL in average time-on-ice per game behind Minnesota Wild defenseman Ryan Suter and Ottawa Senators’ defeneseman Erik Karlsson averaging 27.64 minutes per game according to war-on-ice.

At 5v5 even strength play this season, Doughty leads the league in on-ice Corsi differential at plus-252 and has the third highest Corsi for total behind Dallas Stars’ defensemen John Klingberg and Alex Goligoski. Doughty is tied for third in power-play goals by a defenseman with six and two points in his last five games.

This will be Doughty’s second All-Star Game Appearance having been an alternative captain for Team Nick Foligno in the 2015 All-Star Game.

Jonathan Quick’s All-Star Play in the First Half

With a 4-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Monday night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Quick is now second in the NHL in wins with 24 on the season and was the NHL’s first star of the week ending on Jan 3.

(Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)

Quick currently sits fifth in the NHL with a goals against average of 2.05 and has a save percentage of 0.925 in the 35 games he has played. He has three shutouts on the season and has only seen less time on the ice than New Jersey Devil’s goalie Cory Schneider.

Since the announcement, the Kings have remained on top of the Pacific Division with a 27-12-3 and 57 total points. The team has an 11-point lead over the second-place Arizona Coyotes and next play the Ottawa Senators on Saturday at the Staples Center.