Sports
Column: Drew Doughty and Anze Kopitar call out Kings' selfish play as spiral continues
There’s no bigger insult in hockey than to be accused of being selfish. Putting personal interests ahead of the good of the group goes against the culture of the sport, contradicting the unwritten code that success is built with a united front and can’t come from a bunch of self-absorbed individuals who happen to wear the same uniform. That team-first ethic is one of the beautiful aspects of a sometimes brutal sport.
So it had the impact of a booming slap shot off the glass when Kings defenseman Drew Doughty, clearly upset and typically honest after they had blown a two-goal lead in a 5-3 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday, said self-interest has been at the evil root of a swoon in which they’ve lost 12 of their past 14 games.
“I think we got guys in this room who are too worried about themselves and worried about their points and worried about stuff like that,” Doughty said after they finished a 1-2-1 homestand at Crypto.com Arena to bring their home record down to 8-9-6.
“We get a 3-1 lead tonight and guys start thinking it’s a cookie night and we stop playing the way we know how to play, have an awful second period, and then aren’t much better in the third.
“It’s about the team. It’s not about yourself, and a lot of guys on this team need to realize that.”
That sentiment was echoed by team captain Anze Kopitar, who was honored before the game for having become the franchise leader in games played earlier this season, among other milestones he has reached.
“What I see is we’re not playing as a team right now. Worry about scoring goals too much and not buying into the stuff that made us successful the first 30, 35 games of the year, and it’s frustrating,” said Kopitar, who scored the Kings’ first goal, in the first period, by redirecting a pass from Adrian Kempe. “We’re going to have to correct it, and we’re going to have to correct it in a hurry.”
Doughty said it’s “not a large chunk” of the team that’s a problem. And neither he nor Kopitar would name names.
But it’s easy to round up the usual culprits, such as ghastly giveaways by Kevin Fiala, gaffes on faceoff plays, and disinterested play by Pierre-Luc Dubois — though Dubois did score a power-play goal that gave them that 3-1 lead at 9:44 of the first period.
Add an ongoing goaltending problem — this was the third straight start in which starter Cam Talbot gave up five goals — and a team that had Stanley Cup aspirations is now struggling to stay afloat.
“We’re maybe not playing our best, but the stupidity that went into that loss is beyond explainable,” coach Todd McLellan said. “I could come up here and tell you, ‘Hey in the past we’ve been close, maybe we didn’t get some luck around the net,’ but I haven’t, until now, been able to come in and say, ‘Boy, we played really dumb.’ And that’s what we did.”
Neither Kopitar nor Doughty blamed McLellan for what’s going so terribly wrong. Still, it’s easier to fire the coach than fire an entire team, especially when blame for the construction of the team should fall on general manager Rob Blake.
With no resolution in sight and with the Kings clinging to a wild-card playoff spot, even McLellan acknowledged it was reasonable to wonder whether he will be behind the bench Friday, when the Kings open a three-game trip that will take them into the All-Star break.
“If I was sitting in your seat and you were standing up here I would ask you about it,” he said to the assembled reporters. “I’m responsible for this. And when you look at the team that played the first 25, 30 games, it doesn’t look like the team that’s playing right now and I’m responsible for it.
“Our staff is doing what we can or what we believe we can to get them to turn it around. We’re trying different things at different times. I’m going to keep pushing away. I’m going to try to push buttons, poke people, praise people, look at how we do things. Our numbers, our underlying numbers, say we’re more of the first-half team than the second-half team, but the win column doesn’t say that, and that’s all that matters.”
What matters is getting back to the kind of team play that wins games.
“It’s not about the coaching staff. It’s about the players. I think the coaches on our team have done a great job. They always inform us with every single situation possible. They prepare us perfectly. It’s not about them,” Doughty said. “It’s all about the players in here. No matter what they do, if we don’t perform on the ice, we ain’t going to get wins, and we all know that in here. If anyone is questioning that, then that’s probably why we’re losing games, if people are questioning that.”
Again, Kopitar agreed. “It comes down to this room. They give us the plan, they give us the structure, they give us the motivation or the kick in the ass,” he said of the coaching staff. “It is what it is. It’s about the guys that have to bring it out on the ice, and make things happen.”
Doughty said he and other players have spoken up in the locker room but added, “Sometimes when you talk a lot like me it’s hard to get through to guys.” McLellan said he and the coaches have held individual and team meetings in an effort to jolt players out of this, but so far, nothing has worked.
If they can’t realize they’re letting this season slip away, if they don’t care enough to change that, they’re cheating their fans and themselves.
McLellan said he has spoken to the team about his experience as an assistant coach of the 2008 Cup champion Detroit Red Wings, who had a 1-8-2 slump at one point of that season. “But what we had going there is we found a way to pull ourselves out. We still haven’t done that here,” he said.
“And I’m not saying if we do, we’re a Stanley Cup team. Right now, we’re not. We’re not even close. But we have to find ways to pull ourselves out and we’ve got to find some other things to pull out of the hat here to convince players to play a certain way. That’s on us.”
Or soon, fair or not, it will be the responsibility of a different coaching staff. And maybe a different general manager, too.
Sports
Rory McIlroy’s monstrous lead disappears, surprise contender surges as Masters comes down to final day
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In case you thought the Masters was over after Rory McIlroy’s electrifying second round, here’s your reminder that nothing gets started in Augusta until the back nine on Sunday.
And those final nine holes are sure to be exciting after Saturday’s third-round action that saw McIlroy’s six-shot lead, the largest ever through 36 holes, completely evaporate.
New York native Cameron Young and the reigning champion McIlroy will be paired together as the final grouping of the 90th playing of the Masters, with both golfers at 11 under.
Rory McIlroy and Cameron Young are tied for the Masters lead going into Sunday. (Katie Goodale/Imagn Images, Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
McIlroy started his day at 12 under, but a bogey on the first combined with three birdies by Patrick Reed saw his lead shrink rapidly. When McIlroy birdied the third, and Reed bogeyed No. 4, McIlroy’s lead was back to a comfortable four. Reed eventually fell down the leaderboard, but Young shot up it.
Young, who was 4 over after his first round, began the day eight shots back of McIlroy, birdied the 16th to tie McIlroy, just seconds before McIlroy bogeyed 12 to fall to second place. He shot a 7-under 65 to jump to the top of the leaderboard, while McIlroy went 1 over with a 73. Young birdied eight holes to go along with a bogey on the par-5 15th after going water.
But McIlroy struggled on the back nine, going in the water on 11 for a double bogey, while also bogeying 12 and 18.
Rory McIlroy reacts after a putt on the 18th green during the third round of the Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, on April 11, 2026. (Michael Madrid/Imagn Images)
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This tournament, though, now stretches far beyond the leaders, as there are 20 players within seven strokes, and 14 within six. McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood were the only golfers inside the top 20 entering Saturday to score over par in the third round, making Saturday’s moving day quite the preview for an electric Sunday.
Sam Burns is alone at 10 under in solo third, while Shane Lowry, who benefited from a hole-in-one, is two back. Jason Day and Justin Rose are at 8 under, with Scottie Scheffler and Haotong Li at 7 under (Scheffler, too, shot a 65 after starting Saturday even for the tournament).
Other notables in the mix include Patrick Cantlay, Russell Henley, and Reed at 6 under, Collin Morikawa at 5 under, and Xander Schauffele and Brooks Koepka at 4 under.
Masters champion Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland greets Cameron Young of the United States on the No. 18 green during the first round of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on April 9, 2026. (Logan Whitton/Augusta National/Getty Images)
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After being paired together in the first two rounds, McIlroy and Young will tee off together again at 2:25 p.m. ET, as McIlroy looks to make up for lost time and become the first golfer since Tiger Woods to win back-to-back green jackets.
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There is a new “Fab Four” in the making and they are the Friars.
Servite’s 4×100 relay clocked 39.70 seconds Saturday at the Arcadia Invitational, breaking the state record it set at the same meet last year.
Sophomores Jace Wells, Jorden Wells and Kamil Pelovello and junior Benjamin Harris left runner-up El Cerrito (40.57) and third-place Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks (41.02) far behind and later claimed their best is yet to come.
“We still want to drop more times in the coming weeks,” said Harris, who joined Jaelen hunter, Robert Gardener and Jorden Wells to run the event in 40 flat last year while also setting the meet record in the 4×200. “We work on passing the baton once a week and we’ll go back to the drawing board to make it even better. The most important thing is we got the stick around safely and finished the race healthy.”
“We have great chemistry — we all get along with each other,” added Pelovello, who handled the third leg Saturday for the defending state champions. “We’ll go back to the lab to see if we can do even better but what more can you ask for?”
After an hour’s rest, Harris had enough energy to take first in the 100-meter dash in 10.32 seconds — one hundredth of a second faster than his runner-up time last year.
Later, Pelovello (21.14), Jorden Wells (21.14) and Jace Wells (21.25) swept the top three spots in the 200 meters. The Friars pulled out of the 4×400 relay, but by then they had established themselves as the team to beat in the Southern Section.
Rosary’s Maliyah Collins (left) breaks the tape ahead of Calabasas’ Marley Scoggins in the girls’ 4×100 relay.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)
So too did Fullerton Rosary, Servite’s sister school, in the girls’ 4×100 relay. Royals speedsters Tra’via Flournoy, Justine Wilson, junior Pfeiffer Lee and Maliyah Collins won in 44.23, breaking Long Beach Poly’s 22-year-old state record of 44.50.
“I’m in disbelief but I knew we ran something real fast,” said Collins, a sophomore who held off Marley Scoggins of Calabasas on the anchor leg. “Shout-out to Calabasas for a great race, but this is our spotlight. This is a proud moment for us and the boys.”
Rosary ran 45.57 last spring — the fourth fastest time in meet history — anchored by Wilson. On Saturday, the Royals posted the third-fastest national high school time ever.
Savoring the day’s successes was former UCLA All-American sprinter Brandon Thomas, who coaches both Servite and Rosary.
The opening relays set the stage for the most decorated runner of the meet, senior Quincy Wilson, who traveled across the country to put his talent on display.
Every eye in the stadium was fixed on Wilson as he knelt in the starting blocks awaiting the start of the 400 meters. When the gun sounded he accelerated from Lane 5 as if shot out of a cannon, picked up speed on every stride and circled the oval in 45.48 seconds — breaking the meet record as spectators watched in awe.
Olympian Quincy Wilson (center) cruises to victory in the 400-meter dash in a meet record 45.48 seconds.
(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)
The senior from Bullis School in Maryland gained worldwide fame as a 16-year-old in 2024 when he became the youngest male U.S. Olympic track athlete, helping the 4×400 relay team qualify for the finals in Paris.
The crowd roared when Wilson got introduced for the one-lapper, then the star closed the show by anchoring the Bulldogs’ 4×400 relay, which won in 3:09.14, the second-fastest all-time at Arcadia.
Wilson broke his own national indoor 400 record with a 45.37 effort at the New Balance Nationals last month in Boston. Now 18, he has won four straight national indoor titles. As he proved Saturday, he is not too shabby outdoors, either.
While Wilson drew the most attention, the 58th edition of the nation’s premier high school track and field meet also spotlighted many of the Southland’s finest athletes.
San Jacinto Valley Academy 10th-grader Kaahliyah Lacy, a distant cousin of Florence Griffith-Joyner, won the Invitational girls 300 hurdles in 40.81 while Arkansas-bound senior Braelyn Combe of Corona Santiago ran 2:05.12 to take second in the girls 800 meters, edged at the finish by Union Catholic’s Paige Sheppard.
Jurupa Valley senior AB Hernandez doubled in the girls’ triple jump (42-6) and long jump (20-3) and placed third in the high jump at 5-8. Julia Teven of Brea Olinda won with a height of 5-10.
Aliso Niguel senior Jaslene Massey, an Oregon commit who won the shot put at the Nike Indoor Nationals with a throw of 54-2.75 inches (sixth-best in U.S. high school history) and posted a national-leading discus mark of 188-7 at the Asics Irvine Invitational, won the shot put Saturday with a mark of 53-2 and also took first in the discus (182-2).
Sherman Oaks Notre Dame senior Josh Harel, the reigning state high jump champion, cleared 6-9 to win the event Saturday.
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The Indiana Fever made a series of offseason moves Saturday to surround superstar Caitlin Clark with talent as the team looks to contend for a WNBA championship this year.
The Fever re-signed key players Lexie Hull and Kelsey Mitchell, while adding veteran Monique Billings from the Golden State Valkyries.
The players were signed after the Fever were one game shy of reaching the WNBA Finals in 2025 while Clark missed the entire postseason with an injury.
Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) is ushered back to the bench area by teammates after being called for a flagrant foul on Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese during the second half in Indianapolis May 17, 2025. (AJ Mast/AP)
With Clark set to return, Indiana is keeping its core together while adding veteran depth to bolster its roster ahead of the 2026 season.
The Fever have the fourth-best odds to win the WNBA title in 2026 behind the Minnesota Lynx, the defending champion Las Vegas Aces and the New York Liberty.
Hull previously teased the Fever’s offseason plans and championship ambitions in an interview with Fox News Digital.
FEVER WIN FIRST PLAYOFF SERIES IN 10 YEARS DESPITE CAITLIN CLARK’S INJURY, ADVANCE TO WNBA SEMIFINALS
Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark reacts during the fourth quarter against the Golden State Valkyries at Chase Center June 19, 2025. (Darren Yamashita/Imagn Images)
“I think it’s because we made it where we made it last year without some of our key pieces, and with a lot of injuries, and a lot of, like, this adversity. … Our bench was longer than every other bench. We had more people in the training room getting treatment than any other team, and we still almost made it to the Finals,” Hull said.
“Tasting that and being so close and feeling like we have so much more to give, I think that just changes our mindset a little bit. And it’s not necessarily overconfident, but confident in the fact that we really do have a chance. And we should be playing like every game matters, and we’re preparing for that last one.
“I think it’s very achievable with what we’re going to be able to do with free agency.”
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Indiana Fever guards Kelsey Mitchell (0) and Caitlin Clark (22) talk during the first half in Game 2 of a first-round WNBA basketball playoff series against the Connecticut Sun Sept. 25, 2024, in Uncasville, Conn. (Jessica Hill/AP)
The Fever’s season ended in 107-98 overtime loss to the Las Vegas Aces in Game 5 of the WNBA semifinals last year.
With Clark returning from injury, their core intact and at least one new addition, Indiana is looking to finish the job.
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