Since the Kings were on a bye-week since before the All-Star game, on Saturday, February 11th, the Los Angeles Kings will honor their old captain, Dustin brown. He retired at the end of the 2021-2022 season, but since he was the two-time Stanley Cup winning captain, the team is honoring him by giving him a statue out in front of Crypto.com Arena.
On Saturday, February 11, 2023, the LA Kings retired his number and dedicated a statue in his honor out front of Crypto arena. During the nearly hour-long ceremony, there were plenty of highlights and stories about this popular captain of the organization. He was just a young guy of 18 when he first came to the team, not yet a captain, just a rookie. He was selected in the first round with the 13th pick. He was a powerful player at 6 foot and 206 pounds. He could hit hard. Leading the Kings in hits for his rookie season. The highlights showed lots of him laying people out on the ice. Even his teammates love the story of the Vancouver Canucks playoffs; on that team were twin brothers Henrik and Daniel Sedin. Brown went after one of them, and he never could remember which one it was.
The ceremony went on with old teammates saying nice things about him. The current Kings all came out on the ice in his number 23, with the C on the front. That was a very cool gesture by everyone. The Kings were playing the Pittsburgh Penguins that night, so even old teammate Jeff Carter was on stage to honor his former captain. The speakers all had great Dustin stories to share with everyone. Then it was Dustin’s turn to give a speech, and he was very humbled at all the attention given to him. “To see your number retired with all those other great Kings players is amazing.” He shares the banner space with Dionne, Vachon, Taylor, Gretzky, Robitaille, Blake, and Brown.
Before the number went up to the rafters, Dustin got a few more surprises that the team set up for him. The Kings had the Stanley Cup sent to the building with the guardians of course, one of them was Phil Pritchard. Current Captain Anze Kopitar said that the first time Brownie (his nickname)raised the Cup, he was standing at this one spot. The Kings gave him his old jersey; he put that on and lifted the Cup one more time. Seeing that as a fan of the team was a very cool moment.
He says many thanks to his family, even his wife, Nicole. He stated that if he did not choose his hockey career path, he would have to hear the stories of Nicole’s wins as a player for the rest of his life, in jest, of course. His time on the team was full of wonderful highs and some lows. After the last season they got the Cup, then did not make the playoffs the next season, he was replaced as captain with Kopitar. “C or no C, I always wanted to be a King.” he also told a great story about his rookie year. He just got to LA just became a King. He did not know there was player parking under the arena, so he paid the 20 dollars and parked in a random lt around the arena.
Dustin Brown is the 7th number to be retired in Kings history, and he was a good luck charm to the team that night. The Kings went on to play the Penguins that night and won 6 to 0, starting a two-game winning streak as of this writing. The next game they played the buffalo sabers and won 5 to 2, so as a fan, I will happily take a two game winning streak, here’s to more.
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