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Doughty on Elliott: ‘The one area he struggles is he lets some rebounds’

DrewDoughty2

With just three goals in three games, the LA Kings aren’t scoring on many of their first opportunities.

As such, they’re now focusing on second chances.

Defenseman Drew Doughty alluded to as much in speaking with LA Kings Insider, saying the best way to get to Blues goalie Brian Elliott might be through rebounds.

“He’s a good goalie. He makes the first save pretty much every time,” Doughty explained. “I think the one area he struggles is he lets some rebounds, and I think we haven’t been doing a good enough job of pouncing on those rebounds and putting in the second effort.”

The Kings have been out-shot in two of three games and 97-79 overall. They sit 14th among the 16 playoff teams in shots on goal per game (26.3) down slightly from the 29.8 they averaged through the regular season.

The feeling among players is that working for rebounds plays into a larger theme for success -- specifically, getting more traffic on goal.

LA has some big bodies up front and feels it hasn’t done enough hard work in front of the net.

“We need to beat guys to the net,” forward Justin Williams explained. “We need to throw more pucks to the net. Sometimes I feel when you’re playing hockey, sometimes the puck that you shoot that you don’t think is going in ends up going in.

“It’s just getting it there, and we need to do a lot more of that.”