Los Angeles Kings' Dustin Brown looking to join Derian Hatcher in exclusive category -NHL Playoffs Update
There have been many to hoist the Stanley Cup high above their shoulders and feel the highest level of joys that a person can while playing professional hockey, but only one man to date has had the honour of being the one and only American captain to lead his team to a championship.
Derian Hatcher is the man that enjoys an exclusive category of his own, but now with Dustin Brown in the front leading the Los Angeles Kings towards a Stanley Cup for the first time in 19 years, Hatcher just might be losing that exclusivity.
"It was good to see three of the four guys were Americans left in the [conference] finals there," Hatcher told NHL.com. "I knew it [solo membership] was going to come to an end. At the time it was fun and it was an honour."
Dustin Brown, a native of Ithaca, New York, United States, is working towards taking his team through to the final step and getting that Stanley Cup championship. Los Angeles Kings have come a long way from eliminating the Vancouver Canucks, downing St. Louis Blues and dominating the Phoenix Coyotes to this point.
New Jersey Devils will certainly not be an easy team to face and Brown realises that fact, but working even harder, not just for the championship, but to write his name in hockey history is definitely the motivational factor in this case.
For Hatcher, who won the cup back in 1999 against Buffalo Sabres being the captain of Dallas Stars, giving up the title to someone else was bound to happen and he is happy to share it with another fellow American but he still will not say which team he is rooting for in the Stanley Cup Finals.
"Am I rooting for one team or another? Probably not," Hatcher said. "I know who I think is going to win, but as far as the rooting interest, no. They're both good teams and they're both there for a reason."
Brown has 16 points (7 goals, 9 assists) in 14 games played in the postseason so far and looks to be determined to take his team all the way.
Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals kicks off on Wednesday, May 30, 2012, at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
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