LA Kings : Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down, Season Finale

THUMBS DOWN TO THE POSSIBLE DEMOTION OF DUSTIN BROWN AS CAPTAIN 

(Photo credit to HockeyFeed.com)

We all have strong feelings of some sort about Dustin Brown, whether positive, negative or both, and about this whole story that the Kings have allegedly asked (forced) Brown to step down as Captain.  My feelings on this has a lot of layers attached to it but the main one is that I, and I can only speak for myself, have strong feelings about loyalty.  If this is all true, (and by the looks and sounds of it, it is), there isn’t anymore loyalty from the Kings’ towards Dustin Brown and the word on the street is that Anze Kopitar will be anointed the new Captain.  First of all, for the record, I have no problem with “Kopi” becoming the new Captain.  He deserves it and more.  My problem is with how this is all being handled.  It is giving me too much of a San Jose Sharks vibe (when they sucked) after they had stripped both Patrick Marleau and then later Joe Thornton of the “C.” I know the Sharks are in the Stanley Cup final right now (which myself and Emily Redenbach will be covering live for CaliSports News after receiving approval from the NHL for media credentials), and now have Joe Pavelski as their current Captain, while Thornton and Marleau are still productive players and leaders for the team but neither Marleau and Thornton had led the Sharks to the Stanley Cup or even the final while they were in charge.  Dustin Brown has, and he did it twice as the first ever American born player to lead a team to two Stanley Cup victories.  Brown also won the 2014 Mark Messier Leadership Award at that year’s NHL awards and also was the co-leader of the 2012 playoffs with 20 points, (with Kopitar).  Don’t forget he also scored the overtime winner in game 2 at the 2014 Stanley Cup Final.

Dustin Brown has been a warrior and a leader as Captain for this franchise since 2008 and all of these factors should be considered and warranted before embarrassing him with a sudden demotion.  Sure he has been awful on the ice for the last two seasons. Technically he has played awful since he signed his (too expensive) 8 year, $47 million contract during in 2014. Fair enough, but it’s quite disturbing to me that the Kings are going with a “What have you done for me lately” (not Janet Jackson) attitude to someone who has bled and battled for this team as the Captain and still has his bloody fingerprints all over those two Stanley Cup victories.

I have heard that Dustin Brown allegedly found out the bad news last week because the Kings want to take a new direction with their leadership and he did not take it well. I don’t blame him.  I also heard that someone credible within the Kings’ organization had said (off the record of course) that Brown was NOT being “stripped” of the “C”  but there will be a new Captain next season. So is Brown doing it voluntarily? Like Dave Taylor did for Wayne Gretzky back in 1989?  If that truly is the case then I don’t have an issue with it.  If it isn’t, then regardless of how many of you personally feel about Brown, he doesn’t deserve to be embarrassed or have his legacy as Captain of the Kings tarnished by the Kings.  Trade him if you have to because his contract is just too expensive against the salary cap and Brown is producing too little to justify being paid that much.  It’s been well-known for some time that “Brownie’s” days as a King could be coming to an end. That’s fine and I wrote about that way back in January but don’t embarrass the man.  That’s just not right.  May I add that this is also VERY uncharacteristic of Lombardi and it does seem to have Sutter’s fingerprints all over it, (listen to me constantly saying “fingerprints” like I’m Robert Downey jr’s Sherlock Holmes or someone from CSI or something), as it has been no secret that Sutter and Brown have never gotten along well since day one. As the great “Mayor” John Hoven from MayorsManor.com said in a recent podcast appearance, this could be Darryl Sutter finally putting his stamp on the team by selecting someone he feels should be the Captain. The Mayor did a great job in shedding some light on this situation and I will post the link to it at the end of this article.

In very short time, we will all find out the real truth of this situation and have more clarity and facts to probably think about this and judge it, but for now, the surprising demotion of a long time, faithful and 2 time Stanley Cup winning Captain Dustin Brown, who didn’t see it coming, is getting a Thumbs Down from me.