Pancakes and Villains

This picture was taken from an exhibition game last September when the Los Angeles Kings took on the Pittsburgh Penguins.  As you can tell from the title of today's piece, it's all about the two Dustins, Penner and Brown.  The former was well on his way out of Los Angeles when the playoffs started and earned infamy for throwing his back out while enjoying delicious pancakes.  The latter is the team captain who was rumored to have been shopped around at the trade deadline.

Fast forward to this morning, and now both are a big reason why the Kings will be playing in the Stanley Cup Finals a week from today.  Penner scored the winning goal last night that gave the Kings the title of Western Conference Champions.  A few moments earlier, Brown was involved in a possible knee on knee hit that injured the Phoenix Coyotes' Michal Roszival that was not called for a penalty.  As you can imagine, the Coyotes and their fans did not take too kindly, and it showed in the handshake line.  For both Penner and Brown, this playoff season is their redemption in a sense, and while Penner is still likely to leave town (the Kings are close to the salary cap), he could conceivably  garner some respectable dollars for someone else, though not on the same level as Sean Bergenheim did last off-season.  I say the pancake makers need to get in contact with Penner now, as that moment of embarrassment has suddenly turned into a good luck charm for him, and he even signed a box of pancake mix a fan brought for him.  As for Brown, it's safe to say that he will remain captain for next season, no small accomplishment considering Mike Richards was all but certain to take over when the Kings were struggling in the regular season.