Though the grind of more games than any player in Kings franchise lore and the most official hits of anyone in NHL history was long and arduous for Dustin Brown, it was aptly summarized in an instant this week.
A 300-foot, three-dimensional animated billboard, sprawling across the structures at South Figueroa Street and West Pico Boulevard, shows Brown checking an opponent through the glass, smiling at his adoring audience and hoisting the Stanley Cup. The display’s form and feats alike are unique: No other athlete infused as much emotion into the Kings organization, no one took them to greater heights as a captain and no hockey player achieved such a strong connection to the second-largest U.S. market.
Not even current captain Anze Kopitar, whose relationship with Brown flourished into a fraternal one across three decades and two ascents to the summit to capture the Stanley Cup in 2012 and 2014. Nor Dave Taylor, who was a rock on the consecrated Triple Crown line and then later drafted Kopitar, Brown and Jonathan Quick as the Kings’ general manager. Even Wayne Gretzky, “The Great One” credited ad nauseam with sparking interest in hockey in a market defined more by droughts than frozen ponds among other exploits as the league’s all-time leading scorer, never captained the Kings to one Cup, let alone two, or found himself featured so prominently in the downtown skyline.
“I’m not sure anybody’s going to be able to compete with Brownie in that aspect, because he was the captain of multiple Stanley Cup teams,” General Manager Rob Blake made it a point to say before discussing the team’s season, success and shortcomings after Brown’s final campaign.
Saturday, the Kings will retire Brown’s No. 23, raising it to the rafters in a pregame ceremony about 6 p.m. before they host the Pittsburgh Penguins. Brown will also join Gretzky, former teammate Luc Robitaille, broadcaster Bob Miller and legends of other sports immortalized in sculpture in Star…
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