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No suspension for Kings Dustin Brown

By Helene Elliott
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This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

The NHL will not suspend Kings captain Dustin Brown, who had been ejected from Monday night’s game against the Minnesota Wild for what was ruled an illegal check to the head.

That news was confirmed by Ron Hextall, the Kings’ assistant general manager.

Replays showed Brown struck the shoulder of Minnesota Wild forward Antti Miettinen, however, and not the head. But referee Wes McCauley had called the NHL’s new Rule 48, designed to punish illegal checks to the head, and that meant Brown also would be subjected to a suspension. But after closer scrutiny, the league ruled no suspension.

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‘If I’d hit him in the head, he’d probably be on the ice for a lot longer than he was,’ Brown said after the game. ‘The league’s looking at hits like that. I think that was a clean hit from top to bottom. Shoulder on shoulder. He’s shooting the puck — he’s in a vulnerable position maybe but I’m not going to not make that.’

Brown’s ejection came in the second period of what ended up a 3-2 shootout victory for the Kings. More later.

-- Helene Elliott in Chicago

Sports Now
Helene Elliott

Helene Elliott was with the Los Angeles Times’ Sports department from 1989 to 2024, first as a staff writer and then, starting in 2006, as a columnist. She became the first female journalist to be honored with a plaque in the Hall of Fame of a major professional sport as the 2005 winner of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Elmer Ferguson Award, awarded to writers “who have brought honor to journalism and to hockey.” A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, she has covered 18 Olympics.

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