Sutter singles out Kopitar, Brown for struggles

In an attempt to get more out of his offense, Kings coach Darryl Sutter called out leading scorer Anze Kopitar and team captain Dustin Brown, as Sutter said he needed both forwards to contribute more goals and, in general, play with a more aggressive attitude in the offensive zone.

Brown entered Tuesday's game against Phoenix -- a wild 5-4 shootout loss -- with zero goals in his previous 11 games. Kopitar came in with zero goals in five games and two in his previous 110 games.

Sutter wasn't just all talk. Before Tuesday's game, he took Brown off the first line and promoted rookie winger Jordan Nolan to play with Kopitar and winger Justin Williams on the first line. Brown scored a goal Tuesday when he deflected in Willie Mitchell's point shot.

"Brownie is a straight-line, up-and-down, go-to-the net, shoot-the-puck, run-over-people player," Sutter said. "If he's doing those four or five things, he's effective. If he's not doing all those things, he's not effective. That's what ties into Brownie's scoring, is those areas. It's simple. He's not unlike any other power player. When they stop doing those things, then those chances go down and their scoring goes down. That's where he is right now.

"(Kopitar) has to bring more energy and more purpose when he has the puck," Sutter said. "It's not that he's playing poorly. If you didn't look at him as a high-end offensive player, he's playing well enough in the three zones, but when he's got the puck in the offensive zone, he's got to be a lot more determined, purposed player when he has it in the offensive zone."

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