The Hockey Guy's posts tagged Dustin Brown

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• Los Angeles Kings can shoulder Cup challenge

  21 days ago

  The Los Angeles Kings assembled a large, bulldozing team as last season progressed. Along the way they smashed the Blues and swept them out of the playoffs.
  
  “Los Angeles won the Stanley Cup based on their board play last year,” Blues coach Ken Hitchcock observed. “They won the board battles against every team.”
  
  The Kings still play a heavy game, in today’s parlance, but so do the Blues.
  
  “They’ve got a big, strong, physical team,” Kings captain Dustin Brown said Monday after noon after his practiced at Scottrade Center. “Their goalie is playing well. It’s a matter of just focusing on what we need to do and making it difficult for them.”
  
  The Kings’ evolution began last season when powerful young wingers Jordan Nolan and Dwight King graduated from the American Hockey League. Their robust fore-checking helped the Kings tilt the ice against opponents and sustain pressure in the offensive end.
  
  Cornerstone defenseman Drew Doughty played bigger as the stakes grew. Rangy forward Jeff Carter arrived in a late-season trade with Columbus to add offensive punch.
  
  Brown shrugged off trade speculation, picked up his play and helped fuel the surge. Goaltender Jonathan Quick played brilliantly down the stretch and carried that through the postseason.
  
  The Kings gathered steam late, rallying with 13 March victories to reach the playoffs. Then they built momentum round by round while driving all the way to the Stanley Cup.
  
  “It’s an interesting thing when you go through it, because you can feel the momentum,” Brown said. “I think momentum is more important in playoff hockey than the regular season. You can really step on a team’s throat, or vice-versa, in certain situations.”

  For more on the Kings, check out my post at STLToday.com.

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• Los Angeles Kings look ready to abdicate throne

  February 03, 2013

  The Los Angeles Kings piddled through the first one-sixth of this abbreviated season, leaving fans to wonder just how interested they are in defending their Stanley Cup.
  
  They looked like a mess during their 7-4 loss to the Anaheim Ducks. They allowed two (Jonathan) Quick goals necessitating a change in the net. Alas, things did not improve on Jonathan Bernier’s watch. The Kings made one defensive blunder after another to facilitate the Ducks' route.
  
  The Kings (2-3-2) sank to 14th place in the Western Conference. Only the aging Calgary Flames have earned fewer points this season.
  
  What’s wrong with these guys?
  
  “We’ve let ourselves down and shot ourselves in the foot by poor defensive play,” winger Justin Williams told the LA Kings Insider. “Right at the start of the game – for whatever reason we’ve been having tough times starting games – we’ve been getting behind early and trying to battle back. Once we do get back, we seem to just relax a little bit. We’re a much better team than we’re showing, and it’s extremely disappointing at this point to see where we are.”
  
  Team captain Dustin Brown offered a more blunt assessment of his team’s play against the Ducks.
  
  “I think we should use this game as a wake up call,” he said. “We got our asses kicked. We’ve got to use that as motivation now to be better.”
  
  Los Angeles heads out on the road to face Columbus, Nashville, Detroit and St. Louis, so things won’t get any easier for the Kings.

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• Los Angeles Kings suffer Cup ceremony hangover

  January 20, 2013

  The defending Stanley Cup champions faced quite a clean-up challenge after their season-opening loss.
  
  After the joyous celebration of their banner raising, the Kings staggered to a 5-2 loss to the visiting Chicago Blackhawks.
  
  Here are just some of the issues facing this team one game into the 48-game sprint:
  
  

  • With top center Anze Kopitar sidelined with a knee injury, LA had no power play. The Kings went 0-for-5 with the man advantage.
  • The Simon Gagne-Mike Richards-Dustin Brown line was a mess at even strength, running up a minus-9 tab.
  • The best LA forward line was the fourth grouping of to Kyle Clifford, Colin Fraser and Jordan Nolan. “It was really physical and they scored a couple of goals on the forecheck, which you hope they get rewarded,” coach Darryl Sutter told reporters. That’s great, but as the old hockey adage goes, “your best players have to be your best players.”
  • The Kings defense, minus the injured Willie Mitchell, did an unfortunate job screening goaltender Jonathan Quick. One Chicago goal caromed in off of Drew Doughty and another deflected off of Alec Martinez.
  • Then again, Quick could have played better in the nets. He allowed five goals in a game for just the second time in his career. “When it came down to it, to make the big save, to keep the team, the score close, I wasn't able to do it,” Quick told reporters.

  
  Perhaps a couple of hard practice days – combined wit Kopitar’s return – will get the Kings back on track.

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• Dustin Brown Makes His Case To Stay In L.A.

  February 26, 2012

  Los Angeles Kings general manager Dean Lombardi insists he will not trade forward Dustin Brown, whose combination of skill and grit would make him attractive to many teams.
  
  Brown doesn’t want to leave L.A. – and he reiterated that point by scoring a hat trick as the Kings beat the visiting Blackhawks 4-0 Saturday.
  
  Before the game, Brown admitted feeling some trade deadline angst.
  
  “I'm not going to say the thought is not there,” Brown said, according to the Los Angeles Times. “When people or media or whoever says something — 'Don't think about elephants.' What do you think about?
  
  “At the same time, I just try to focus on what I need to do to play tomorrow night.”
  
  The Kings made a big splash by dealing puck-rushing defenseman Jack Johnson and his big-time offensive potential to Columbus for goal-scoring center Jeff Carter.
  
  Darryl Sutter installed Carter on right wing to give struggling center Mike Richards an offensive-minded playmate. The two worked together in Philadelphia, although usually on separate lines at even strength.
  
  Richards is glad to have him.
  
  “He's playing well right now,” Richards told the Times. “I've watched the last couple of his games. He had a hat trick against San Jose the other night. He had a little bit of injuries earlier in the year, but he's back right now and he's feeling healthy and excited to get started. He's a motivated kid coming in here and it'll be good.”
  
  Johnson’s exit left pundits wondering if Lombardi would deal for defensive help. Slava Voynov, just back from the AHL, got first crack at teaming with Willie Mitchell.
  
  But if Lombardi isn’t willing to move Brown, can he muster a trade package enough to land a difference maker?

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• Los Angeles Kings Desperately Seeking Offense

  February 19, 2012

  The Los Angeles Kings absolutely, positively must trade for offensive help.
  
  They just fell to ninth place in the Western Conference by suffering consecutive shutout losses. First the Phoenix Coyotes got them, then the Calgary Flames blanked them.
  
  There appear to be no internal solutions to this season-long scoring drought. Goaltender Jonathan Quick has played brilliantly this season, but he has suffered 18 one-goal losses.
  
  Kings coach Darryl Sutter tried to wake up power forward Dustin Penner by rendering him a healthy scratch for three consecutive games, to no avail. Penner, earning $4.25 million on the last year of his contract, has just five goals and eight assists this season.
  
  “It's definitely frustrating. I think it's been frustrating all year for all the players in here,” Kings captain Dustin Brown told the Los Angeles Times. “The lack of scoring. Tonight we had some really good chances. (Miikka) Kiprusoff made that save on Penner in the first It was a world-class save.”
  
  Penner’s ineffectiveness, combined with injuries to Simon Gagne (post-concussion syndrome) and Jarret Stoll (lower body), prompted Sutter to flank No. 2 center Mike Richards with youngsters Dwight King and Jordan Nolan.
  
  King is a big lad, at 6-foot-3 and 227 pounds. He scored 24 goals at Manchester of the American Hockey League last season and had 11 in 50 games this season. In his first four games with the Kings this season he had a goal and an assist.
  
  Nolan is about the same size. He has just 14 goals in 115 AHL games, but 234 penalty minutes. He should be a fourth-liner in the NHL, not  a second-line player.
  
  It’s hard to imagine either player moving the bar much during trade talks between Los Angeles and Columbus concerning power forward Rick Nash. Goaltender Jonathan Bernier would be much higher on the Blue Jackets list, for instance.

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• Golden Opportunity For Darryl Sutter

  December 19, 2011

  The Los Angeles Kings have all the ingredients to make a run at the Stanley Cup. They are deep up front, on defense and in goal.

  But they are strangely adrift, as they proved while falling 8-2 to the Red Wings with interim coach John Stevens at the helm.

  So new coach Darryl Sutter is positioned to become the difference maker. He will crack the whip on this talented and well-compensated team and start sorting the leaders from the passengers.

  Injured veteran Mike Richards, one of the NHL's better two-way centers,figures to buy in right away. He figures to be a key figure once he returns to active duty.

  So does sturdy winger Dustin Brown, the worthy team captain. He has always been willing to play a hard game.

  But what about super-talented center Anze Kopitar? What about cornerstone defenseman Drew Doughty? What about power forward Dustin Penner, a hulking non-factor that no team was willing to take off GM Dean Lombardi's hands this fall?

  These are the players Sutter must winner over ASAP.

  “With everything that's gone on, guys have got to take responsibility in here because it doesn't matter whether Stevens is our coach or whoever they're bringing in,” Brown told the Los Angeles Times. “It doesn't make a difference who the coach is. It's going to be the players that play the games, and it's going to be the players that need to take responsibility.”

  Sutter has the experience, resolve and persuasiveness to make that happen. Expect the Kings to make a big second-half run.

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