Looking all right on left

Alexei Ponikarovsky’s return to the third line means that the Kings will keep their top six forwards intact. Therefore, Dustin Brown will remain a left winger for now. Brown, a natural right winger, has played the last four games on the left side. He has yet to score a goal there, but does have two assists — including the set-up on Anze Kopitar’s overtime goal Saturday — and has totaled 11 shots on goal in those four games. Still, Terry Murray paused for a moment when asked today if he felt comfortable staying with Brown on the left side in the long term…

MURRAY: “You’ve got me there. I know I said, several times last year, that he’s a right winger and that’s where I want him to play. I’m comfortable with it because he’s comfortable with it. We sat down and talked about it in my office, and he has no reluctance, whatsoever, to move over there. He played there before I got here, on the left side, and through the Olympics, and had a very successful Olympics as a left winger. Then you see the kind of play that he’s able to make off that side, in the winning goal in overtime (against Detroit). That’s the great advantage. You’re on your power side, you’re shooting the pucks, you’re making plays, you open up and see the ice very well. So it’s great to have a player who can play on your top lines and play on either side, obviously. It’s a luxury. That’s maybe the way I’m starting to look at it.”

It was suggested to Murray that Brown’s apparent on-ice comfort level on the left side might make things easier…

MURRAY: “He does look very comfortable. In fact, as you watch the game, when he’s playing as a right winger, often the attack, off the counter, off the breakout, he does end up on that left side. There is that tendency, that comfort he has in his game, and it’s very hard to change that sometimes. Even though you do bring awareness to it, those instincts bring him there for offensive reasons.”