Dustin Brown has seen this movie before, the one in which the Kings are a bad team going through a long, painful climb toward Stanley Cup contention.
Brown, drafted 13th overall by the Kings in 2003, played a key role in lifting them to the top of the hockey mountain in 2012 and again in 2014 alongside defenseman Drew Doughty, centre Anze Kopitar, and goaltender Jonathan Quick. But there’s a price for success in the salary cap-governed NHL and the Kings are paying it as they slowly transition from a veteran-driven team to a faster group whose young players can take the scoring and leadership batons from the aging Cup-winning core.
That transition has been tricky: forwards Tanner Pearson and Tyler Toffoli once were regarded as future franchise pillars but Pearson was traded in 2018 and Toffoli’s name has been featured in rumours leading up to the Feb. 24 trade deadline. Who’s the next Kopitar, the next Brown, the next Doughty?
“Eventually that’s the question that need to be answered internally,” Brown said on Saturday before the Kings faced the Ducks at Staples Center. “I want to keep playing as long as I can but eventually there’s going to have to be guys that are going to be the next crop of guys that are going to be able to take this team to the next level.”
The first time Brown went through this he was a kid and a disruptive physical force. He’s 35 now and not nearly as productive or physical as he was. Looking at the big picture, though, he sees parallels between the buildup to the Cup successes and the stage the Kings have lately reached.
“We’re further along in this process than I think we were the first time we went through it,” he said. “We’ve lost a lot of one-goal games. We’re one mistake worse than a lot of teams. You go back, you always compare it to when you won, and we just didn’t make as many mistakes as a collective group. The last few games we lost by one goal – we made a bad pinch here and a bad read. We were making those 10 years ago and then all of a sudden we stopped making those and we were a really good team. So I think that’s the best attitude to have.”
He’s encouraged by the Kings’ new structure and stability, advances that aren’t always reflected in their results. They were 19-28-5 for 43 points before they faced the Ducks on Saturday without the injured Doughty; at the same stage last season the Kings were 21-27-4 for 46 points and were 22-27-4 after 53 games. Doughty is expected to return today.
Brown was surprised to learn their record is worse than at the same point last season because the team’s mood and foundation are stronger under coach Todd McLellan. “The reason it feels different is we’re in every game,” Brown said. “We’re not winning them. We’ve got to learn how to win them. But last year if we gave up two in the first, the game was over. There wasn’t any coming back. There wasn’t any fight in our game.”
Brown took a five-game point streak into Saturday’s game, his longest streak this season. He struggled through early December, feeling ill but playing through it, until he woke up Christmas Day and felt sick enough to go to the hospital. He was diagnosed with pneumonia and missed four games. It took him nearly two weeks to get back to some semblance of normal.
McLellan noticed an uptick in Brown’s performances at Florida before the team’s bye week and the All-Star break. He considers Brown a vital contributor in ways that can’t always be quantified. “We expect a good, honest, individual effort, which we get from him most nights, but more importantly, the opportunity to give back,” McLellan said.
Brown has accepted a decrease in his penalty-killing duties and praised Alex Iafallo for excelling in that role. “It’s just whatever is best for the team,” Brown said. “Eventually I’d like to get back on the PK more consistently because it keeps you in the game as a player more. Our PK hasn’t been good and we’ve got to try different things and move forward. Just try and help in any way you can.”
It has been rare over the shared history of the Ducks and the Kings that they played a game that has no real playoff implications, but they’re both well behind the pack in the Western Conference. In pondering that, Brown mentioned his admiration for former Detroit defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom, who never missed the playoffs in his NHL career. “That’s a sick, crazy stat, but I wouldn’t trade how things have gone here and anybody who says otherwise is lying to you,” Brown said. “We won, and now it’s trying to start over again.”
He hopes to make a meaningful contribution this time, too, even if his role is different. “I want to keep playing as long as I can but I want to be on a good team as well, so it’s finding ways to help the younger guys get better,” he said. “The big thing is that next group coming. None of us guys is getting any younger. … We need some guys to start taking the team over, eventually.”