Deep Blue Sea: Dustin Brown out indefinitely

To continue with the themes of our California rivals getting absolutely throttled, Dustin Brown is out “indefinitely” with a broken finger.

The 33-year-old forward left the ice during the Los Angeles Kings’ final preseason game against the Anaheim Ducks during a power play late in the third period on Saturday night. Here’s the play in question:

Here’s a better look at when Brown got injured #LAKings pic.twitter.com/Gd2ODOWhV6

— Eric (@Kingsgifs) September 30, 2018

It appears as though Anze Kopitar took a shot and Brown took that puck to the hand while in front of the net. It must’ve messed up his finger pretty good to keep the Kings from having any sort of timetable on his eventual return the next day.

Between Anaheim’s own injury troubles with Corey Perry and Ryan Kesler, Brown going down just opens up the Pacific Division all the further. Missing key players could be a crucial factor in these teams banking points early in the season, especially as they face Pacific teams.

Games matter now and the biggest advantage one can have in this division is as simple as having a fully healthy team (and in Vegas’ case, not having your top defender suspended).

From that angle, the Sharks are feeling pretty good.

Just don’t ask us about the preseason anymore, okay?

News & Notes

• Dustin Brown Leaves Game With Broken Finger, Out Indefinitely
• Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but Tom Wilson is facing a suspension. Capitals’ Tom Wilson facing multigame suspension after illegal check vs. Blues
• Love to read any Erik Karlsson praise. THE HOCKEY NEWS’ 2018-19 SEASON PREVIEW: SAN JOSE SHARKS
• We’ll have our own staff predictions soon, but here’s what the NHL.com experts are predicting (and spoiler, they think the Sharks are good): Stanley Cup predictions for 2018-19
• The fine folks at Sports Illustrated are also hopping on the Sharks hype wagon: NHL Power Rankings: Things Are Already Set at the Top Entering the Season
• The recap is linked below, but this celly from Ryan Johansen is probably the funniest thing to happen in the whole entire preseason:/

ryan johansen scored the ot winner and then just said fck it and left lmfaooo pic.twitter.com/7zblBFrqRC

— dylan (@DylanFremlin) September 30, 2018

• And if you were worried about what happened to Marc-Edouard Vlasic last night, he had to go to the quiet room after colliding with Alex Tuch. Weird timing for sure, and I’m still curious what resulted in his unsportsmanlike conduct penalty just before he left the ice./

#SJSharks DeBoer said Vlasic had to go the quiet room in the second period. Thought he bumped heads with someone. It might have been with on that one play, but I’m not sure

— Curtis Pashelka (@CurtisPashelka) October 1, 2018

Scores & Recaps

• Colorado Avalanche 6, Dallas Stars 5 [Mile High Hockey recap, Defending Big D recap]
• Nashville Predators 5, Carolina Hurricanes 4 (OT) [On The Forecheck, Canes Country recap]
• St. Louis Blues 2, Washington Capitals 5 [St. Louis Gametime gamethread, Japers’ Rink]/