`Identity’ remains critical for Brown

Dustin Brown, media darling of the first three rounds of these playoffs, has had an interesting, tough-to-reconcile, Stanley Cup Finals series thus far. Brown has one point, an assist in Game 3, in four games. He was effective in that game, even though he didn’t record a shot on goal, but seemed far less effective in Game 4, when he also didn’t have a shot on goal. To be fair, the Kings’ first line, in general, did not have a good game in the offensive end, so Brown shouldn’t shoulder all of the criticism, but the Kings would certainly like him to show the big-goal mentality he seemed to have throughout the playoffs.

After today’s practice, Darryl Sutter was asked whether the reduction in big offensive plays by Brown could be attributed to his own play or how the Devils have been adjusting to him…

SUTTER: “I think probably both. But he’s still the physical guy, the hard guy to play against. I think in the earlier rounds, you were talking about him more because he was more of an offensive guy. You’ve got to be careful of that, because he’s a 20‑some-goal scorer that scores big goals for you. We still need him to do that. We still need him to be a physical guy and to be strong on the walls. Everybody always asks about our captain, those things. It’s something we get asked a lot about. But it doesn’t change, right? He has an identity. If he plays in that identity, that’s what he does for us. He complements Kopi and Justin.’’