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Dustin Brown recovery - how close to 2012 version?

Rorschach

Rorschach

Who the f*** is Trevor Moore?
Oct 9, 2006
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Los Angeles
In 2012, post trade rumors, Brown was the scariest playoff performer I had ever seen. Scarier than Sakic, Gretzky and others I watched before...series altering hits, demoralizing SH goals, you name it.

Since then we've all been looking for that guy again after his knee injury.

The last couple of 2014 series, we got a few glimpses of that 2012 guy again.

How close do you think he is to his former self?
Click to read more...
 
Rorschach said:
In 2012, post trade rumors, Brown was the scariest playoff performer I had ever seen. Scarier than Sakic, Gretzky and others I watched before...series altering hits, demoralizing SH goals, you name it.

Since then we've all been looking for that guy again after his knee injury.

The last couple of 2014 series, we got a few glimpses of that 2012 guy again.

How close do you think he is to his former self?
Click to expand...

I think he's going to be a 20 to 25 goal scorer and get 50+ points. I don't know if we'll see 2012 playoffs Brown, but a bounceback regular season would be a good start.
 
Rorschach said:
In 2012, post trade rumors, Brown was the scariest playoff performer I had ever seen. Scarier than Sakic, Gretzky and others I watched before...series altering hits, demoralizing SH goals, you name it.

Since then we've all been looking for that guy again after his knee injury.

The last couple of 2014 series, we got a few glimpses of that 2012 guy again.

How close do you think he is to his former self?
Click to expand...

As you pointed out yourself, Brown was unbelievable in the playoffs in 2012. You can pretty well rest-assured we won't ever see that again.

However, after a pretty bad season he had a good playoff run. I think (hope) we will see a more consistent Brown this coming season.
 
Rorschach said:
In 2012, post trade rumors, Brown was the scariest playoff performer I had ever seen. Scarier than Sakic, Gretzky and others I watched before...series altering hits, demoralizing SH goals, you name it.

Since then we've all been looking for that guy again after his knee injury.

The last couple of 2014 series, we got a few glimpses of that 2012 guy again.

How close do you think he is to his former self?
Click to expand...

I guess that depends on what you mean by 'his former self'. He's older, and the style he plays, an extreme physical one , wears on a player esp when he's entering his 30's. I think Dustin Brown's biggest asset is that physical force he becomes, far mor e than goals or points. That is what this team responds to, and he's just as responsible for a playoff W by doing that even when he doesn't appear on the stats sheet. WHen he his a checking force, rattling the boards, the team plays better, they all elevate their game and that leads to wins.

This team has evolved since that 2012 year you speak of. They've added Carter (late in 2012) Gabby, and TT and TP are emerging young and rising talented top 6er's. Even AMart 's rising confidence from late Feb thru that scoring tear in March and how he's grown has aided the teams success. So Brown doesn't need to 'score' to be 'that guy' again. He needs to just be Dustin Brown. I missed that more than this points last year, that for at least pre Olympics, he just wasn't that guy. But one of the Canadian writers said he heard from some of Browns Team USA teammates that being benched in that game was his wake up call. And maybe their right, he did play better post Olympcs.
I think if he stays healthy and plays all 82, he should get close to 50 points, but if he doesn't and he is physical force, good PKer', does all the things he need to do to lead, that's fine to, because he has a lot of teammates that will score.
 
What he does in the regular season is not that interesting to me. All I know is if he does what he's capable of doing, him and Richards, it will be very disorienting to our playoff opponents and shortens series for us.
 
I for one am very encouraged he'll return to form after seeing his performance versus the Rangers he was physical, relentless and inspiring to teammates especially with his demeanor on the bench......
don't look at the stats as much as the example of play he displayed, as the playoffs wore along and guys were getting tire Brownie seemed to finally start getting into a rhythm and began to look like his old self. Therefore, I expect something along these lines:
Goals: 25
assists: 36
Points: 61
and of course a ton of hits and physical play and inspiration from our "C"
 
If he plays a full season with Kopitar and Gaborik, I think he'll do just fine. He started to look more like himself in the playoffs, so that was encouraging to see that he can still hit and score.
 
From the start of the 2013 playoffs, to the start of the 2014 playoffs, about a calendar year, Brown was clearly off. The deeper the Kings went in the playoffs last year, the more in control Brown looked. Just more in control of his own body. The goal he scored in Game 4 against the Rangers was the 2012 playoff Brown.

I would certainly hope that he has a bounce back season. Brown in 2012 is about as good as he'll ever play. A point per game in the playoffs. It's probably not fair to compare him to that. Looking at past production, 20 goals, 50 points should be the minimum, but there are different variables now. He's older, the Kings have more offensive weapons up front. Hell, if he even got 15 goals and 27 points again, as long as he's playing better while doing it, that would work.
 
I'm looking at the "massive" list of "improvements" by the West teams...the other contenders didn't do much and other teams went from punching bags to almost contenders.

I look at the Kings and I see Greene playing like a monster at the end of the playoffs (Rangers got shut down.) and Brownie showing glimpses. Richards I have faith that he will do what he said he'll do and we'll have the deepest center corps in the NHL. We lost an aging Mitchell who was hurt in the playoffs anyway and Regher will decline a little bit more. Factoring in all of the pros and cons, I think we have improved the most.

I'm thinking with a fully armed and operational Jeff Carter and a mega Kopitar-Gaborik combo, we can aim for 2012's 16-4 again.

I wouldn't mind a Marc Methot in our lineup though.
 
I know most of us answered regular season in regards to Brown's expected output, so I'll indulge with a postseason stats prediction. If the Kings play 20+ playoff games again, I would expect roughly 12 to 15 points. Our big guns basically replicated their output from 2012 in 2014. Doughty and Kopitar just about the same as last time, meaning dominant. Carter improved his numbers, but he started the 2012 playoffs on a bad wheel. JW went all Conn Smythe. Richie declined, but I'm hoping for a bounce back to 2013 numbers, even. That being said, having re-watched all the series clinching games thanks to NHL Network, he played well in just about all of them.
 
With his big, fat contract (6-mil, holy ****) kicking in.....I expect the Brown's to now be able to afford a good nanny, or two. With that, Dustin should have more time to rest....which can only make his game better.
 
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