Thought on Dustin Brown

[Schmooley]

I never posted here in the past but Id like to share a thought on Dustin Brown. I believe hes still a great player, but he has just been a bit too ineffective for quite some time now. Having watched nearly every Kings game for a long time, I trace his decline back to the acquisition of Gaborik and the emergence of Tanner Pearson.
Brown was playing mainly on the left side (of Kopitar) before these 2 were on the roster. Plus after the Lucic trade he definately hasnt had a spot there this year either. I wonder how hed play on the left side, mainly Kopitars left side. Maybe Im wrong and hes played all over the lineup. It was something I noticed, as I always prefered my opposite side in my playing days. Maybe it comes down to trouble with the angles he cant make plays and either stays wide too long or coughs it up trying too hard.

Love you love the Kings what a great team to watch!

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[Trolfoli]

Welcome aboard!

Some questions, may not be answered in our lifetimes. Brown may be one of those.

 

[ninjastache]

Not the most knowledgable kings fan around, so my opinion may be wrong to many but.....

I think a lot of it happened after the knee collision with hertl. Refs seemed to keep him on a very very very tight leash, sending him to the box whenever he tried to throw his body around.

I think he's finally finding that balance he needs to get back to being more productive for a kings playoff run. He's no longer throwing his body for the sake of doing it, even when he's out of position.(compared to last year)

 

[Jeff18]

He's not a bad player, just way overpaid and a huge detriment to the team because of that. He's also closing in on the end of his career.

 

[Nefarious]

He's accomplished a lot, has two cups. Have to remember he also has kids. As he gets older he can't play balls to the wall like he used to. All you have to do is look at Deadmarsh and ask yourself is it worth living the rest of your life like that?

I'm mostly referring to Brown's physical play. Of course, when he plays physical is when he's most effective.

 

[redcard]

Not the most knowledgable kings fan around, so my opinion may be wrong to many but.....

I think a lot of it happened after the knee collision with hertl. Refs seemed to keep him on a very very very tight leash, sending him to the box whenever he tried to throw his body around.

I think he's finally finding that balance he needs to get back to being more productive for a kings playoff run. He's no longer throwing his body for the sake of doing it, even when he's out of position.(compared to last year)

I think the Hertl collision and the hit on Miettenen back in 2010 had a substantial impact on him. In both situations he was ejected midway through a close game putting his team shorthanded for 5 minutes, yet saw no discipline from DoPS. On the Miettenen hit they flat out said the refs made the wrong call. He's expressed frustration with the refs saying one thing and the DoPS saying another, and he's picking his spots with his hits a lot more these days.

Earlier in his career if he wasn't scoring he could look back at each game and say "well I had 6 hits, drew 2 penalties, and kept the other team on their toes all night so I did my job." I think now he feels he can't get away with that anymore and that contributes to his offensive struggles.

 

[ninjastache]

I think the Hertl collision and the hit on Miettenen back in 2010 had a substantial impact on him. In both situations he was ejected midway through a close game putting his team shorthanded for 5 minutes, yet saw no discipline from DoPS. On the Miettenen hit they flat out said the refs made the wrong call. He's expressed frustration with the refs saying one thing and the DoPS saying another, and he's picking his spots with his hits a lot more these days.

Earlier in his career if he wasn't scoring he could look back at each game and say "well I had 6 hits, drew 2 penalties, and kept the other team on their toes all night so I did my job." I think now he feels he can't get away with that anymore and that contributes to his offensive struggles.

I'm tempted to edit my comment, and just paste yours, since you are far more eloquent, and more specific. I agree whole heartedly.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Welcome, first of all!

I had a long drawn out post on Brown last year that really boiled down to a lot of what you see here.

I think the Hertl collision and the hit on Miettenen back in 2010 had a substantial impact on him. In both situations he was ejected midway through a close game putting his team shorthanded for 5 minutes, yet saw no discipline from DoPS. On the Miettenen hit they flat out said the refs made the wrong call. He's expressed frustration with the refs saying one thing and the DoPS saying another, and he's picking his spots with his hits a lot more these days.

Earlier in his career if he wasn't scoring he could look back at each game and say "well I had 6 hits, drew 2 penalties, and kept the other team on their toes all night so I did my job." I think now he feels he can't get away with that anymore and that contributes to his offensive struggles.

I can agree with that, some of it is just additive. Extra attention from the refs = he doesn't flop at all any more, throw edgy hits, whatever. I think concussing his friend Pominville had an effect on him,, as the knee injury clearly did too. Ultimately, this year, he looks fully healthy and the effort is for sure there, but the recklessness is down, and so is his production. It's just unfortunate because I think damn near everyone loves him, his contract is just too much to bear if he can't put up points as well, since we have to throw out so much money to vets we can't really afford a 6 million dollar third liner.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Brown's last decent season came in the shortened 2012-13 season, and his horrendous play started with those playoffs. After that, it's been all downhill from there. His goals, points and shooting percentage have plummeted through every passing year. He was alright in the 2014 playoffs, Sutter has given him chances to succeed but Brown just never shows enough to hold down a top six role. Dustin Brown's days as a top six forward are done.

You can even question whether or not he's an effective checking line forward. Don't really see him creating chances and you rarely see him getting under the opponents skin and drawing their ire like he used to do. After having so many kids and winning it all and getting the big contract, it seems like his drive and intensity has gone down the toilet.

I thought he would be a "heart and soul" type of leader like Shane Doan has been for the duration of his career with the Coyotes, but it's apparent that he isn't going to have the longevity of a player like Doan. All that off-season conditioning and training really didn't result in Brown becoming a better player.

His play is not commensurate with his salary, and Dean Lombardi is very likely looking at a way to get out of another horrendous contract.

 

[Schmooley]

All have mentioned really good points and its likely a combination of things. Thinking hell turn it up come playoffs. If he and Lucic can both play heavy itll be hard for teams to deal with in a series.

 

[sinister6000]

Dustin Brown negotiated his own contract, Dean Lombardi got owned. He's probably a great team mate, but man he's only worth 2 mil a year now.

 

[losingsand]

This season Brown has looked the best and had a 3 game goal scoring streak playing with Carter. Kopitar hasn't even been the answer like it usually is, He's pretty much invisible when he plays with vinny. Hell if we want to get Brown going in time for the playoffs maybe we spread the offense over 3 lines like we did on our winning streak against #1 teams. Sure the onus is on brown to bring it no matter what line he's on but carter seems to be the one to spark him. Brown's game HAS changed and maybe he's just saving up that extra aggressive gear towards the playoffs as that would make sense to expend your energy and risk injury in a playoff situation rather than one of the trudging 82 games in the reg season.

reunite brown and carter.. see what happens. brown was masterful in the first 2 series in 2012... if we can get a brown anywhere close to that one, ill be happy...

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Yeah, I'm actually pretty shocked the Brown-Carter experiment is like, the least-tried top-six option ever. I wonder why, because literally every time I've seen it, it's been magic. Small sample size, of course.

 

[TradeMadeMeSignUp]

Dustin is a cool name, I guess. That's the only thing positive I can say about Brown this season.

Seriously, guy makes way too much and has been bad since the shortened season. He hurt his knee that year and played hurt in the playoffs, didn't produce and hasn't been close to the same since. He's invisible in 50% of the games, another 25% he has horrid mistakes that makes me wanna throw crap at the tv (or on the ice). The guy had a neutral zone turnover that led to a goal against the Stars, next game he has a total brain fart that lead directly to the GWG for the Canucks, they should have given him an assist. He ALWAYS loses the puck before getting into the zone, he's a turnover machine at the other teams blue line before dumping it in and now he doesn't even play as physical as before.

No matter what you say about Dustin Brown, the simple reply is 5.85Million and you lose the argument. The guy is absolute ********* on the ice.

 

[gnarls barkley]

Yeah, I'm actually pretty shocked the Brown-Carter experiment is like, the least-tried top-six option ever. I wonder why, because literally every time I've seen it, it's been magic. Small sample size, of course.

maybe, but i kinda feel like that's because you can put basically anyone with Carter and it turns into magic

didn't Clifford also look really good with Carter?

 

[Kingsfan1]

THe team goes as he goes in the playoffs. In 2014 he had 14 points when we last won the cup. I fully expect him to ramp it up during the playoffs when things are let go of more. His physicality has dropped to much for my liking however it is the Kings specialty for the playoffs.