It felt like I was on the wrong side of the die in some cases (though I chose pretty much almost all the players I had initially targeted), and in some respects, that made me think of Los Angeles Kings captain Dustin Brown.
He hasn't scored 20 goals in a single season since 2011-12, often relegated to the team's third line, and hasn't even reached the 30-point mark since then; truthfully, he did get 29 points in 46 games in the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season, but only 27 points the past two years as the Kings either entered the playoffs as the final seed or missed them entirely.
L.A.'s thing was that they could turn their game ''on'' at any time and just plow through the opposition when need be, but last season served to show it wasn't a foolproof plan. This year again, they're struggling out of the gate, going 0-3 with superstar goalie Jonathan Quick's goals-against average standing at 3.70 and his save percentage at .861. Brown himself only has a lone assist.
Then again, three games is not even 5% of a season, it's one week. Out of a possible 20. There is no need to panic. Except there wasn't last year, either, and it didn't end well. And the team's playing like crap.
It could be the beginning of Darryl Sutter fatigue, or the team's reaction to how Dean Lombardi threw Mike Richards under the bus after getting rid of his cap hit.
Whatever it is, it better get fixed soon, because it's extremely ugly.
That being said, here's the captain sporting the Kings' black and purple uniform, from Upper Deck's 2013-14 Black Diamond set (card #LAK-DB of the Black Diamond Jerseys sub-set):
Despite his slowing down, I anticipate he will suit up for Team USA in next year's World Cup, as he has in the last two Olympics.
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