When the captain’s “C” was ripped off Dustin Brown’s jersey in the summer of 2016, a little piece of his heart went with it.
He had broken in at 18 and excelled while the Kings’ perpetual rebuilding stalled and their locker room seemed to have a revolving door. He was rewarded in 2012, when the Kings went from the eighth seed to Stanley Cup champions and he became only the second American-born captain to lift the trophy. Two years later he became the first American-born captain to hoist it twice. He had given them five straight seasons of at least 20 goals while embodying their identity as a formidably physical team, ranking in the top 20 in the NHL in hits each season from 2005-06 through 2015-16.