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Dustin Brown played the hero on his own night as he scored the game winning goal in overtime to beat the Colorado Avalanche 2-1.
It was only fitting that Brown scored as it was his 1000th game, all with the Los Angeles Kings, becoming only the second player to do so. It was also a night where the Kings celebrated Marian Gaborik’s milestone of 1000 plus games, which he reach on Dec. 16 in the 4-3 overtime loss to the New York Islanders.
The 2017-18 season has been a season of redemption for Brown as for the last three season it was thought that he was on the downside of his career. This season Brown has 13 goals and 29 points after 36 games and is well on his way to demolishing his totals from the last three seasons.
“The reason I’m able to play 1,000 games is because I played with a group of guys for a very long time and have been successful,… Brown told Jon Rosen before the game. “If you could rewrite history and we don’t win in 2012, maybe even [Kopitar’s] not here right now. Maybe I’m not here right now. Maybe Quick. Everything changes because success breeds success.…
Head coach John Stevens hasn’t been around the organization as long as Brown has, but long enough to see his importance to the Kings. The outcome to this game is something to bring a Smile to his face.
“We just said it was fitting, almost poetic justice,… said Stevens. “The accolades and the compliments you can give [Brown], I don’t think you can overdo it. I think he’s been the identity of the franchise for a while and has done a lot here.…
“I think he got off-track for a little bit, but he was honest with what kind of player he needed to be, and he was willing to do the work to become that player again. I know a lot of people are surprised… but I’m not surprised.…
It didn’t look like this was going to be the Kings night through 40 minutes of this game. The Avalanche were leading this game 1-0 heading into the third period and outshooting the Kings 21-14 up to that point.
Despite that, the Kings had the better scoring chances and were able to find many holes in the Avalanche defense. However, Semyon Varlamov was playing the way he was capable of and did a good job keeping the Kings off the scoresheet.
Midway into the third period, however, Alec Martinez was able to get his shot through from the point, which fooled Varlamov and tied the game. From then on it was all Kings who dominated as the third period and overtime went on.
“[We] just challenged our team that we can do better,… said Stevens. “[The Mitchell line] won some battles, turned pucks over, they allowed a puck to get up top and then they won races to the net. [Martinez’s goal] was the type of goal we needed, but a real credit to [Mitchell, Andreoff, and Brodzinski] for getting out there and doing yeoman’s work to make sure the puck stayed in the zone.…
Coming up next the Kings travel to San Jose to face the Sharks in the last game before the Christmas break. Like the Kings, the Sharks had to dig deep on Thursday to beat the Vancouver Canucks 5-4 in overtime. This will be the third matchup between the state rivals with both teams winning a game apiece.
After the Sharks the Kings will have four days off before welcoming the Vegas Golden Knights to the Staples Center for the first time in their franchise history. That will be a big game as Vegas is currently only two points back of the Kings for the division lead. With both teams tied with the same number of non-shootout wins, the division series is the next tie break should it come to that at the end of the season. Vegas currently leads the season series 1-0 and have three games in hand on the Kings.