Music: {allcanada} OILERS' HALL DOWNPLAYS TALK OF RIVALRY WITH KINGS' DOUGHTY

Thursday, February 3, 2011

{allcanada} OILERS' HALL DOWNPLAYS TALK OF RIVALRY WITH KINGS' DOUGHTY

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It all could have been so perfect.

On Wednesday night in Edmonton, the stage was set for what appeared to be the jumping off point of a budding rivalry between one of the NHL's best young defencemen and the reigning first overall draft pick.

When the Oilers' Taylor Hall dropped Kings' blueliner Drew Doughty with a butt-end of a stick to the face early in the first period, followed by Doughty screaming down Hall from the bench, it appeared as though two of the league's top young stars had found their respective foils, and that the ensuing battle would be the first of many over their careers.

Unfortunately for hockey fans, reality got in the way of a good story.

"I think it was a little overblown," admitted Hall on Thursday. "It was just one player competing against another one."

One day later, Hall appeared somewhat embarrassed about all the attention that his brief scuffle with the Norris Trophy nominated Doughty had generated. In fact, he felt that the media was trying to turn a conversation between the two in the second period into something that it was not.

"I saw on the TV last night that they highlighted when he came and talked to me, but it was just a friendly conversation. He said 'you really got me good there', I didn't mean to and that was the extent of it there."

The media could certainly be excused for thinking that perhaps Hall was looking to gain a measure of revenge after the last time the two met on January 11th in Los Angeles when Doughty re-introduced himself to Hall in the form of a devastating hip-check that Hall said was the hardest that he'd ever been hit in the NHL.

While Hall said that revenge was not necessarily on his mind Wednesday night, it was a happy byproduct.

"I was just trying to get body position and unfortunately I got him right in the face. I didn't mean to or anything but I guess that a little bit of payback is nice."

While the two sides have only faced each other three times professionally, they held countless duels in the OHL where Doughty spent three seasons with the Guelph Storm while Hall served with the Windsor Spitfires.

"I played against Drew in the OHL a lot," said Hall. "He's a great player and I have a lot of respect for him and how he plays the game, but we're just competitors playing against each other."

Hall's head coach Tom Renney liked what he saw from his rookie sniper.

"You've got two young, good players," said Renney following the game. "I'm sure we'll revisit that issue over the years to come. It's good. It's a tough league and there are all kinds of good individual rivalries. It's a sidebar to games and as the games become more important, so will those little contests."

While Hall may have won the individual battle, Doughty won the war as the Kings skated away with a 3-1 victory. The real winner in the situation has to be hockey fans around the world that get a chance to watch the rivalry develop.

"Great competitors certainly bring out the best in each other," said Renney. "As time goes on Taylor will recognize who those others are that want to beat him."

Doughty has clearly let it be known that he intends to beat Hall at every opportunity. Now both sides can look forward to the grudge match on March 29th in Edmonton, which will be the final encounter of the season between the two teams and a chance for one to hold individual bragging rights over the other.

Still Hall refused to bite on the buildup to the game.

"He's a tough player and certainly someone I'm going to be playing against for awhile."

Stay tuned as the best is inevitably yet to come.