Dang it, Dustin Brown.
Dang it. You went and got yourself suspended for one game by the Department of Player Safety, for the above hit on Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Mikhail Sergachev. You’re now subject to repeat offender status in the NHL’s eyes for the next 18 months, which means you have to keep your nose entirely clean until the end of 2018-19 or risk some stricter punishments. More importantly, you’re a repeat offender in that you have now been suspended multiple times by the league.
Dang it. I’ve always defended you when you got called dirty, and so has every other fan of the Los Angeles Kings, but you literally just got away with an ugly-looking hit on the Penguins’ Justin Schultz, merely earning a fine! And this is how you follow it up? You’re making this tough.
Dang it. Sharks fans had finally slowed down on the kneeing references, more than four years after you got ejected for a knee-on-knee hit on Tomas Hertl. At least that time you tried to move your knee out of the way.
Dang it. You’d never been suspended for kneeing, even after you almost pulled off the rare elbow-knee combo on Jaden Schwartz. Your only suspension was for a no-look elbow for which you had some plausible deniability. This was our number one counter-argument to every “DUSTIN BROWN IS SO DIRTY” hot take and now it’s gone.
Dang it. I can no longer broadcast the fact that Joe Thornton had been suspended more times than Brown had, because they’re tied at two despite Thornton’s best efforts.
[UPDATE: Dang it. I messed that up. Thornton is still ahead of you. Stop trying to even it up, Dustin.]
Time for: FACTS WITHOUT CONTEXT
Joe Thornton: 1404 career games, 3 suspensions/8 games
Dustin Brown: 919 career games, 1 suspension/2 games— Jewels from the Crown 💎👑 (@JFTC_Kings) January 4, 2017
Dang it. I know after more than 1,000 games you’re never going to stop playing this way and I think that’s beneficial! You were so good at stopping just before that line, though. You knocked a guy out of the deciding game of a Conference Finals and only Coyotes fans were mad about it, because you stayed on the right side of the law on that one!
Dang it. You’re having one of the best years of your career, your point total has already passed your total from each of the last five seasons, you’re top-five in the league in +/-, and that default “Dustin Brown is still in the league?” response was falling out of style. You were making headlines for non-dirty plays! Not anymore, though.
Dang it. Trevor Lewis is hurt. So is Jeff Carter. Remember? The Kings can’t afford to have you miss games in the middle of this playoff race. We’re just lucky you’re only missing one more.
Dang it. I just wrote something that future people might use as fuel to bash you, even though I really like you and just want you to be more careful when you’re aggressively and directly skating at opposing players.
Dang it, Dustin Brown.