Quote:
Originally Posted by Jay Random
And the Kings were back to losing with Brown producing on the top line.
Maybe what was best for the player wasn't best for the team.
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Technically, the 2017-18 Kings had a better regular season (98pts) than the 2016-17 Kings under Sutter (86pts) so that's a bit of a sensationalized statement you've made.
I think that Sutter probably would have liked to see Brown's production return, but had pretty much given up on the idea given how unproductive Brown was in a bottom six role. It's not as if their top six was stacked... Kopitar was playing with some plugs himself.
The Kings' decline had to do with lot of things, and it would start with Voynov turning out to be a wife beater. The Kings basically lost their second best puckmoving defenseman from their cup runs. Willie Mitchell moving on being another factor. Mike Richards' sharp decline another. The Flames equivalent there might be losing Hanifin and Tanev permanently while Backlund ages out. They were spinning wheels with different guys filling lineup holes. They also didn't have much talent coming in through the pipeline.