Kings’ Brown Gets Jersey Retired, Beat Down Penguins

Photo by: Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times

On Saturday the Kings hosted a pregame ceremony to unveil a statue outside of Crypto.com Arena and raise the number 23 to the rafters in honor of former captain Dustin Brown. Brown becomes the seventh player to have their jersey number retired, and fourth member of the organization to have a statue made.

Brown’s statue immortalizes an iconic moment in LA Kings history, showing the moment he became the first player in franchise history to hoist the Stanley Cup. Brown spent his entire 18 year career as a King, being the youngest captain in team history when he first donned the “C” at 23 years old. Through his career he was a one time All-Star, a one time Mark Messier Leadership Award winner, and most importantly a two-time Stanley Cup Champion. He retired with an NHL record 3,362 defensive hits and is the Kings franchise leader in games played at 1,296.

Photo by: Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times

Several former teammates of Brown came to the ceremony, including active players no longer on the Kings including Jeff Carter, Alec Martinez, Jake Muzzin, and Kyle Clifford. Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty, and Jonathan Quick are the last remaining members of the Kings cup teams still on the team, they spoke and shared stories during the ceremony.

After the ceremony the Kings still had a game to play, and they played all out in honor of Brown. In a rousting effort over Pittsburgh the Kings came out with a 6-0 shutout victory. Forward Adrian Kempe scored four straight goals for the Kings, becoming the first King with four goals in a game since Dustin Brown, very fitting. Pheonix Copley recorded his first shutout as a King in what was a strong defensive effort for the Kings. The game also saw Penguins Sidney Crosby get his first game misconduct and saw him ejected from the game.

All around it was a great day for all Kings fans from start to finish, the perfect way for the Kings to kick off the second half.