When Anze Kopitar and Justin Williams went down with injuries a few weeks ago, readers of MayorsManor voted Dustin Brown as the player ‘most likely’ to step up and seize the opportunity.
In the days that followed coach the latest reconfiguring of the line combinations, this time necessitated by the absence of two of the Kings top players, the remaining forwards and coach Terry Murray kept talking about everybody on the team needing to step up.
With seven games in the books now as the ‘new’ Kings, who has Murray been most impressed with so far?
“Whenever stuff like this happens, with good players going out, you’re always looking to your leadership group,” he said. “You’re always looking to your captains first, to lead the way in all of the areas – whether it’s in the locker room, the things you talk about, the message that’s brought from the coach’s office into the locker room – to be those carriers of what needs to be said.
“I think Brownie‘s done a wonderful job there, with how he’s playing – with the effort, with the intensity, the compete, he’s getting results, he’s scoring goals, he’s involved in scrums. He’s just really bringing an all-around game right now and setting the example to lead the way for the rest of the guys. So, I feel I have to look at him as the guy that’s really taken on more. And he’s able to deal with it. He’s such a powerful individual, physically, that he can carry that workload and do it at a high tempo.”
More high praise for the LA Kings captain, who earlier this week was talked up quite a bit by 20-year NHL veteran Jeremy Roenick (article here).
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