Dustin Brown: Model of Consistency
The trials and tribulations of the Los Angeles Kings 2011-12 season have been well chronicled, as Christmas is coming in full force. Terry Murray, arguably one of the better defensive-minded coaches in the NHL, was given his pink slip last week. These same Kings have gone through an offensive power outage of epic proportions, scoring only 20 goals in their last 12 games. The lack of offense on a nightly basis, albeit missing one of their stars for the last few weeks in Mike Richards, cost a coach his job and eventually has taken this team from securely in the top eight to now having to fight and claw their way back from the doldrums. Many players in Los Angeles have played sub-standard this season. However, if you are a fan of this team, one of the guys you can’t complain about is hard-hitting, power-forward Dustin Brown.
As the captain of this team, Brown’s responsibility isn’t just to put points on the board and serve as a physical presence on the ice. The leadership he exudes in the locker room is one of the main reasons why this team will find a way to get back on track. There have been some Kings fans throughout the passing weeks and months who aren’t particularly fond of Brown, for whatever reasons they believe. Some believe he doesn’t have the qualities of a captain in the NHL. However, they don’t know what takes place in the locker room and only Brown’s teammates can say how good of a leader he is. Night after night, while he is not always putting the puck in the net and being a major offensive contributor, to say he is not doing what it takes to help his team win Hockey games is a major fallacy and a myth. Words are not the only block to lean on for how a player is performing or working on the ice. That being said, after Saturday night’s 8-2 drubbing at Joe Louis Arena against the Detroit Red Wings, in which the Kings allowed at least five goals for the first time, Brown was adamant about the situation at hand. He made it clear that this team needs to look in the mirror and bring a better effort because the lackadaisical form the Kings established was not getting the job done.
Every player who makes eye-raising comments are always looked upon to step their game up next time around. Sure enough, after Brown’s hair-raising, yet blunt comments from Saturday night, he was one of the key factors for the Kings in their 3-2 shootout victory in Toronto last night. Brown scored a key power play goal that gave Los Angeles a 2-1 lead at the time, however his biggest contribution was the game winning goal in the shootout. That goal lifted the Kings to a victory and gave them a .500 road trip. After the debacle that has taken place in Kings Nation during the last week and a half, a 2-2 road trip on the East Coast, including beating a Toronto Maple Leafs team that has established themselves as a very solid Hockey team this season, was a good one, in all honesty.
When Ken Hitchcock was brought into St. Louis to be the head man for the Blues, he spoke of Blues captain David Backes and how he needed a player that could be his ally and be able to get Hitchcock’s message spread out in the locker room. With Darryl Sutter becoming the new head coach for the Los Angeles Kings, it will be imperative for Sutter to relay his message on the system this team will play and how they will play as a whole, to Brown. At the end of the day, players will only listen to a coach for so long so it is key that you have your most important player(the captain) be able to support what the coach is supplying. Darryl Sutter is on a different land, from the likes of Terry Murray and John Stevens. He is a harsher, more motivating coach who’s job will be to get the absolute best out of a Hockey player. Jarome Iginla is the perfect example for a Darryl Sutter player, as the two were together in Calgary during the Flames cup run in 2004. In Los Angeles, while the likes of Anze Kopitar, Mike Richards, Drew Doughty, Jack Johnson and Jonathan Quick are major components for this team to be a well-oiled machine, Brown is the backbone of this team. Everyone looks at him to be the leader and night after night he is there for his team. If Brown was on the East Coast, he would be a lot more popular. This is how good of a captain he really is and his leadership qualities are great for an organization. Is he an elite scorer? No, but he is a very good top six player who has been a stout leader for the Kings during the last few seasons. Who on the Kings besides Brown, is a natural leader or a guy that could easily be a captain? Anze Kopitar is a good leader but he’s never been the main leader on a team. Mike Richards was a captain in the ever-tough Philadelphia but he was brought to LA to not be the main man, but to be a support piece to take the pressure off of Kopitar. Clearly, Dustin Brown is the right captain for this team and any fans or media that believe otherwise, have not seen him play the game and be the leader he has established himself to be.
Keep it real folks.
pics from daylife.com
