alt="LA Kings Insider with Rich Hammond" />Dustin Brown’s postgame thoughts…
(on the overall poor play…)
BROWN: “We had a couple good shifts in the second. We had a 2-1 lead and they came back and tied it up and we’re going 2-2 into the third. Throughout the game, especially on the offensive side, I mean I think we had 25 shots maybe, but not too many good scoring chances. That’s a result of players not playing hard enough, for one, and not playing together.”
(on the afternoon starts being a factor…)
BROWN: “No. We play afternoon games every couple weeks so that’s just part of playing in this league. Whether you play at seven o’clock or one o’clock it’s more about preparation, both individually and as a team. I think offensively, we need a lot more from everyone. We just didn’t play, at least in my opinion, together. Very seldom are you going to have one player that’s going to make plays and win you a game.”
(on missing Ryan Smyth…)
BROWN: “Obviously when one of your top players go down, obviously you want Smytty in the lineup but I think everyone else should be… I should be lighting up and getting excited and bringing energy to the game. Maybe that’s part of it. We didn’t have a lot of energy. It’s irrelevant why we didn’t have it. We need to bring energy, especially in critical games.”
(on the power-play struggles…)
BROWN: “I think the power play is one of those things that we need to stick with, really. I think the shorthanded one obviously could have been prevented. I don’t know exactly what happened but that’s one thing we can’t be doing on the power play, is giving up shorthanded. We also didn’t generate a lot today. Partly that’s our power play, and Calgary had a pretty good PK today as well. When we have a PK or a PP at the end of the game, we need to find a way, similar to that game against Philly, where we found a way to get a goal. We needed that tonight.”
Enough quotes and talk from everyone. Put up or shut up. It’s amazing how losing breeds negativity. I guess I’m guilty as charged. Later !!
[Reply]
This is why the DL can’t bring anyone up….
These are the forwards that will be here for the next few years.
Kopitar
Smyth
Brown
Williams
Simmonds
Stoll
Who’s going to fill the remaining spots?
Frolov? How long will he be here?
Richardson? I can skate really hard and fast and not be able to score…maybe if you were 8″ taller and 50lbs heavier!
Purcell? 180lbs soaking wet playing on the checking line?
Parse? Nothing more than pure adrenaline the first few games and than flat.
Lewis? Never impressed me!
Lokitonov? Sounds promising but so was Purcell and Lewis, cross our fingers!
Clune? The second coming is not coming.
Too soon to tell players
Clifford???
Holloway???
Westgarth???
Not even in an emergency players
Zeiler…no way
Moller…no way
Gauthier…no way
Meckler…no way
[Reply]
Sounds like Brown knows a lot of this lack of energy is on him, but he’s not quite ready to pick up the burden that truly comes with captaincy when he says “it’s irrelevant why we didn’t have it (energy).”
[Reply]
I hat to say this but I did some math. The west is so close that if 15th place Anaheim “Sux” win all games in hand (like that will ever happen) We would only be 3 points over them. We are now 5th in west. If 6-11 win all games in hand we drop to 11 without having to lose a single game. Granted that doesn’t take into account the games that we all play against each other. Needless to say those games are must win now. Man I hate math!
[Reply]
Can Anaheim fire diamonds out of their butts too?
[Reply]
I Think brown needs to get back to the basics and just focus on playing a physical, gritty game… it just seems like he is just thinking and trying to do too much. Keeping things simple usually helps a player to rediscover his game. Murray should also move him to third line so he can focus on playing this style.
[Reply]
Can the Kings call up a bunch of kids from Manchester and bench some of the guys who have been dogging it of late? I’m talking about Dustin “ooh, the puck is on my stick, I should shoot even though there are 4 guys between me and the net and I’m just going to put it into the goalie’s chest protector anyway” Brown, Michael “I play defensive hockey so I don’t have to chip in on offense so I’ll just dump the puck deep and let my linemates chase it” Handzus, Jonathan “Hockey is a 60-minute game?” Quick, and Justin “I really don’t do anything except take ill-advised shots” Williams.
Mainly I blame today’s loss on Quick for giving up that ridiculous goal 13 seconds in, but the other guys I just mentioned were all awful today. Do you think Terry Murray will bench Brown or even give him a harsh talking-to? I doubt it.
And why the hell does Murray insist on playing Stoll on the point on the PP? It doesn’t work!!! Put Doughty and Johnson back there together for the full two minutes and let them fire their canons with someone standing in front of the net! The power play has been abysmal for a while now but for whatever reason nothing seems to get changed. Why not continue using the same ineffective strategies?
Enough venting. This team can just be really frustrating sometimes.
[Reply]
I was at the game. Calgary dominated. Kings were outplayed. Very little offense. Quick actually made a lot of big stops, but lets in the soft goal 13 seconds into the game.
I’m not going to complain about any one particular player, the whole team did not play very well.
[Reply]
Steve, I disagree to a slight extent: Frolov and Doughty both seemed to play pretty well.
[Reply]