Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Wingels: Brown declined fight, ‘doesn’t want to own up’ to Hertl hit

Dustin Brown

Captain Dustin Brown #23 of the Los Angeles Kings talks to a teammate prior to a faceoff in the second period of Game Two of the Western Conference Final against the Chicago Blackhawks during the 2013 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at United Center on June 2, 2013 in Chicago, Illinois. The Blackhawks defeated the Kings 4-2. (June 1, 2013 - Source: Jamie Squire/Getty Images North America)

From CSN Bay Area:

Tommy Wingels offered Dustin Brown a chance to drop the gloves on Monday. Twice.

Both times, Brown declined, according to the Sharks’ forward.

“I guess he doesn’t want to own up to it,” Wingels said on Tuesday. “There’s many other opportunities, right?”

Wingels was seeking revenge for the hit Brown laid on Sharks rookie Tomas Hertl on Dec. 19 -- one that sidelined Hertl with a knee injury and put the remainder of his season in jeopardy. On Monday, San Jose said Hertl’s in the “infant stages of rehab” after undergoing surgery.

Brown was tossed from the Dec. 19 affair and the two sides didn’t meet until last night -- a 1-0 L.A. win -- so Wingels had plenty of time to think, and discuss, the incident.

“Intensified [the rivalry] a bit, I think,” Wingels explained. “We weren’t happy, and I certainly wasn’t with the way things were handled, and the play itself.”

Following the game, Brown said the referees got the kneeing major call wrong, which prompted Sharks GM Doug Wilson to say he was “disappointed” in Brown’s lack of concern for Hertl.

This is just the latest chapter in what’s become a very heated rivalry between the California clubs. The two engaged in a spirited seven-game series last postseason, which included a number of barbs (see here and here) and Raffi Torres‘ huge hit on Jarret Stoll, one that got Torres suspended for the duration of the series.