Los Angeles Kings captain Dustin Brown has never been an elite scorer, but for years he’s been a consistent producer. Before the shortened campaign, he recorded between 46 and 60 points for six straight seasons while still playing a physical game.
The 2013-14 campaign has been an exception though. While he’s still throwing his body around, he has just 13 points in 41 contests. That puts him on pace to have his least productive season since 2003-04 when he played in just 31 games as a rookie.
“I could be a (heck) of a lot better,” Brown conceded to LA Kings Insider.
His struggles has led to him dropping from his typical 19 to 20 minutes per contest to an average of just 16:52 minutes this season. He only ended up logging 13:04 minutes against St. Louis on Thursday.
Kings coach Darryl Sutter noted that Brown isn’t playing as aggressively along the walls or to the net lately. For the most part, his drop off has been mitigated by the fact that Los Angeles is having a great season anyways, but after losing five straight games, this would be an ideal time for Brown to step up.
Los Angeles will face Vancouver tonight.