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Brown calls out Kings, Sutter reminds captain he needs work too

Calgary Flames v Los Angeles Kings

Dustin Brown

Getty Images

The Los Angeles Kings’ chances of making the playoffs haven’t evaporated, but they certainly have thinned after losing nine of their last 11 games. The contrast between their 2014 Stanley Cup championship and the 2014-15 campaign couldn’t have been starker as the Kings went from visiting the White House on Monday to being shutout tonight.

They might not be the same team that won the Stanley Cup in 2014, but a lot of the players are the same. So what’s holding Los Angeles back? If you ask captain Dustin Brown, he’ll argue that it boils down to a lack of emotion.

“It starts with our emotion,” Brown said, per LA Kings Insider. “I answered that question similarly today. We’re a good team, but it’s hard to win when you don’t play with enough emotion. That’s on an individual level and a collective level. We need everyone to be invested in the game emotionally, and from there we can work on X’s and O’s and all of that, but you need the emotion first.”

On a more positive note, Brown thinks the team still believes in the system and defenseman Matt Greene added that they remain confident. At the same time, their slump has dragged on for about a month now and they’re still dealing with the same issue.

“If guys don’t know what’s going on, then they haven’t been listening,” Brown said. “We’ve had plenty of meetings. We’ve talked about it. At a certain point, you’ve got to stop talking.”

And it would seem that Brown isn’t immune either as Kings coach Darryl Sutter noted the captain’s bad change on Washington’s first goal tonight when reporters brought up Brown’s lack of emotions talk.

Follow @RyanDadoun