Doughty downplays Couture friendship: 'We really aren't that close'

After undergoing a role reversal - of sorts - on the Stanley Cup schoolyard, Drew Doughty's now willing to set the record straight.

He and Logan Couture aren't really pals.

"I debated saying something but I didn’t. I don't know ... whatever. He can say whatever he wants. It doesn't really affect us," the Los Angeles Kings star defender said Sunday, according to Yahoo Sports' Josh Cooper. "I don't even know what to say about that."

He added: "To be honest everyone talks about this 'buddy' thing but we really aren't that close. We really aren't. We basically work out at the same gym and that's about it."

Doughty's revision, which corrects for an ongoing narrative about friendship and collective hockey upbringing in London, Ont., comes in response to Los Angeles' swift dispatching, but also Couture's biting remarks after the series.

"Throughout the last couple of years things have been said by players on that team that to me I take it as disrespectful," Couture said after Game 5.

"It's nice to stick it back to them and beat them in this series. Even in this series someone said on the team they had us right where they wanted us. Wonder if they have us where they want us right now."