Kings Gameday: Dustin Brown, You Dope (Not Really)

Here's the hit if  you haven't seen it, my thoughts after the jump:

-Yeah, I can see why Dustin Brown got a penalty. He came from the side, hit up near the head, hit after the player released the puck. It wasn't necessarily illegal but it wasn't necessary either and I can see a referee thinking Miettinen got hit in the head.

On the other hand, Brown kept his elbow down, actually hit Antti Miettinen in the shoulder, and the hit came immediately after Miettinen let go of the puck. It's shitty because on the one hand, it's a penalty; on the other, Brown didn't do anything wrong. If Brown had done the exact same thing but Miettinen hadn't stretched out then there wouldn't be a penalty. That's what Miettinen needed to do to take the shot and I'm not saying it's his fault, I'm just saying that if he had been straight up then everything would have been kosher. It wouldn't be such a big deal if Brown hadn't gotten such a severe penalty; I mean, the hit on Kyle Clifford by Alex Edler looks a lot worse and I didn't think that was a penalty either.

It just sucks because you're going to see a hit like that and it's not going to be a penalty, then you'll see a much cleaner hit and that guy will get 5 and a game, then you'll see one way worse and that guy will get a 2 for elbowing or charging or something. Oh well, I guess I still don't understand the rule.

-Matt Greene punched some guy in the face when that guy was coming over the middle and got praised for a hard hit. Huh.

-My main man Anze had himself a game, eh? He ended up a -1 thanks to Brown deflecting a shot from the point (Quick still should have gotten it) but I thought overall he played really well. He was strong on the boards, decisive on the power play, and he made the most basic shootout goal known to hockey players look slick as hell. I said before the game that going up against Mikko Koivu is kind of a benchmark for Anze, and I think he met it. It's the first time he's ever done that. Good for him.

-You know who was awesome? Rob Scuderi. Davis Drewiske, too, which was weird.

-The Kings are in a tough spot with Kyle Clifford. I know they want him to make the team so they don't have to play Kevin Westgarth all the time, but he's not really cutting it. I think they need to look into sending him back to Junior and calling up Richard Clune. Or, alternatively, they could play their good players more often. You know, either or.

-Loktionov didn't look good on the Wild's first goal but other than that he had a great game. Slippery mother fucker. He's like Slimer.

-I said this on my Twitter the other day, but seriously:

Marton Csokas (the bad guy from xXx) and Justin Williams: separated at birth?

-Alexei Ponikarovsky looks a guy Jackie Chan would fight in some mid-90s action movie. Then Jackie would fight some Asian guy and a double-jointed dude that looks like James Mirtle.

Prediction: Kings win, 3-2. Brown scores and then yells, "Welcome to the Xander Zone!*" Then everyone laughs at him because that's the shittiest catchphrase in movie history.

*Shouldn't it be "Xander Xone?"