LOS ANGELES — They say Drew Doughty has improved, or he has matured, or he has taken more of a leadership role with the Los Angeles Kings. All of that is true. Four years ago, he won an Olympic gold medal and was a finalist for the Norris Trophy at only 20 years of age, and now, teammate Willie Mitchell said: “He’s twice the hockey player he was then.”

But there is another angle to Doughty, who just won his second Olympic gold medal and is three wins from his second Stanley Cup – and perhaps his first Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs’ most valuable player. Maybe he is much the same guy he has always been. Maybe what has changed the most is how people look at him.

“I think his carefree attitude and style, some people really looked at that as a weakness,” Mitchell said. “He didn’t care enough, or he wasn’t putting enough effort, or he wasn’t working hard enough. Then people started to understand his identity. He’s got the most passion out of anyone on our hockey club, and you can see that.”

Mitchell laughed. Remember what happened Sunday when Alec Martinez scored in overtime to beat the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 7 of the Western Conference final? Remember how Doughty leapt to his feet on the bench, pounded the glass to his left, jumped over the boards to join the celebration … and fell on his face? Yeah, you can see that.

“He cares so much, and he wants to win so bad,” Mitchell continued. “I think people understand him a lot more and understand that it’s not a weakness. It’s actually a really big strength as a hockey player and a human.”

The Kings drafted Doughty second overall in 2008, behind only Steven Stamkos. He broke into the NHL at age 18. For a long time, he lived off his talent. He carried too much weight, as he had in junior. He played with a veteran partner, giving him backup. Now he has lost the baby fat at age 24, and he mentors partner Jake Muzzin, a year older but less experienced.

View photos Doughty reaches for the puck against Rangers winger Chris Kreider during Game 1 of the 2014 Stanley Cup Final at Staples Ceneter in Los Angeles. (USA Today) More

Doughty has always had tremendous physical tools – the ability to skate the puck out of trouble defensively and drop jaws offensively. Mitchell likes to say he can skate “sideways,” like Sergei Zubov and Nicklas Lidstrom used to, but he also has a physical element those two didn’t. You don’t want to come down the boards and run into that big hockey butt.

And though Doughty has never been known as a thinker off the ice, he has always had a beautiful mind for the game. He is a hockey genius. He stood out at both the Vancouver and Sochi Olympics for Team Canada, like a gifted student who blossoms in an advanced class, surrounded by others who can work at his level. He can analyze himself by feel in the flow of the action.

“I can kind of feel how I’m going to play right away off the first period,” Doughty said. “If I’m feeling it in the first, I know I’m going to have a good game the whole time. If I’m not feeling it in the first, I’ll kind of just make simple plays and try to get it to come to me by the second period. I’ve learned not to do too much.”

Yet Doughty is still very much a wild stallion. Asked what it felt like when he was going good, his eyes lit up like a little kid’s – like the little kid in the home movie the Kings show before games at Staples Center, the little Drew Doughty who declares what he wants to be when he grows up: “Hockey player!”

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