Brown's big night

Dustin Brown had what has generally considered to be his best game of the season Tuesday night. Brown didn’t score a goal. He didn’t even have a shot on goal. I think it goes a long way toward the theory that Brown often tries too hard and doesn’t let the game come to him. When he loosens up, and plays smart but not tense, he can be a force. Brown had the first three-assist game of his career and his first three-point game of his season.

Here’s what Terry Murray said today about Brown’s effort against the Leafs…

MURRAY: “Yeah, not bad. (laughs) He was a real force there throughout the night, to be honest with you. His attitude with the puck, his size, his strength became a factor in the game. And it wasn’t something I talked about before the game, and said it’s one of these games that you have to dig in. I think he recognized that, as the captain of the team, that it was important for him to go out and set a style, set a tempo, and to follow through with that on every shift. And guys followed him.

“The first attack of the game that he had, in the first period, he was driving down the right-wing side and he could have challenged the defenseman wide, held onto the puck and kept going and maybe taken a real sharp-angle shot or made a play of some sort. He didn’t do that. He kind of got rid of it too soon. As soon as he came back to the bench, Jamie (Kompon) talked to him about it, and from that point on, there was a lot of authority in his game.”