Dustin Brown on Michal Rozsival: Dirty Hit or Incidental Contact?

Dustin Brown Knees Michal Rozsival

I felt a huge adrenaline surge and a level of ecstacy I haven't felt since... when I woke up and found out the Los Angeles Kings had won their Western Conference Final series against the Phoenix Coyotes the night previous. I was proud of a team who had, for the most part, stayed away from cheap shots, dirty hits and diving in these playoffs. In other words, they were winning the right way.

Then I turned on SportsCentre and heard all the chatter about Dustin Brown's knee-on-knee collision with Michal Rozsival literally one play before the end of the game and couldn't help but feel a bit let down because my team had lost some honour by taking out an opponent with a dirty play.

But then I watched the replay of the hit. And watched it again and again. And listened to commentary from a multitude of sources on this incident: TSN, Sportsnet, NBC. And I can't help but have mixed feelings about this whole affair.

Dustin Brown, I will concede, is at fault for two things on this play. There is no doubt that the Kings captain hit Rozsival after the whistle had blown, as the Coyotes were offside at L.A.'s blueline. Brown only hit him a fraction of a second after the referee stopped play, yes, but Brown is fully responsible for his own body and not hitting players late. I will also admit that Dustin Brown left his leg out on the check. It was sticking out at an angle where it could and did do damage to an opponent in a collision. I'm not sure if that was deliberate or if it was just out because of how he was skating towards the Coyotes' forward, but it was out there.

On the other hand, there are a couple points I'd like to make in Dustin Brown's defence. First of all, he did hit Michal Rozsival's arm and shoulder, too, making it seem to me like Brown was aiming high and not at Rozsival's knee. The other is that the Kings' captain didn't move his leg towards the Phoenix forward's knee before or during the collision, so perhaps the contact was incidental. Brown did have his leg way out in a dangerous spot the whole time, but it didn't look like he did anything to target Rozsival's leg.

Do I think Dustin Brown plays on the edge and can cross the line sometimes? Yes? Do I think that elements of the hit on Michal Rozsival were cheap and dirty? Absolutely. Do I think Brown targeted Rozsival's knee deliberately and tried to put him out? No. Do I think Brown should have gotten a penalty or suspension? A minor penalty, maybe, but certainly not a suspension.

Either way, this happened on the very next play...


and the Los Angeles Kings are off to the Stanley Cup Final for the first and only time since 1993. I have loved this team since 1989 and am proud of their accomplishments this post season. What a great underdog story and no amount of bitterness from Shane Doan is going to change the fact that LA was the better team against Phoenix, or Vancouver or St. Louis for that matter.

Go Kings Go! Bring your first Cup home to California this year!