Kings notes: Dustin Brown likely to play Monday against Flyers

PHILADELPHIA — Greetings from the city of brotherly love, where there isn’t much love left for the harsh weather the region has experienced this winter.

More snow is forecast for Tuesday, but by then the Kings will have left town for Washington and their game against the Capitals at the Verizon Center. The Kings will take the train from Philadelphia to Washington after Monday’s game against the Flyers at the Wells Fargo Center.

Jonathan Quick is expected to start in goal for the Kings. Ray Emery is expected to start for the Flyers, even though Steve Mason recorded a 35-save shutout when Philadelphia beat the Kings, 2-0, at Staples Center on Feb. 1.

“Just because I thought that Steve, the games he’s played lately and everything that went on, Ray played a big game against Chicago and just his turn,” Flyers Coach Craig Berube said, a roundabout way of saying that Emery played well in a 3-2 victory over the Blackhawks on Tuesday and that Mason had played twice since then.

“We have two goalies. We’ve used them all year and we’ll continue.”

Berube, incidentally, knows Kings Coach Darryl Sutter from their days in Calgary. Here are the details from a story by Times colleague Lisa Dillman.

Kings captain Dustin Brown, who sustained a bruised chest Saturday and missed most of the Kings’ 4-0 victory over the Florida Panthers, participated in the morning skate Monday and said he’s ready to play against the Flyers. Brown flew to Philadelphia on Sunday, after seeing a doctor in Los Angeles and getting clearance to play. The team flew here after Saturday’s game.

“I’m good to go,” he said. “If you’re asking me, I’m in. I’m fine.”

He said he was injured during the first period when he tried to hit Florida’s Dylan Olsen, “and he was just ready for me. I was actually hitting him and it was the old, ‘I’m ready for you.’”

Coach Darryl Sutter wouldn’t say if Brown will play, though it seems likely. “I don’t know. He was never really out,” Sutter said. “He’s an active player.”

The biggest news for the Philadelphia media was the return of former Flyers Jeff Carter and Mike Richards, who were both instrumental in the Kings’ 2012 Stanley Cup run. The Kings acquired Richards directly from Philadelphia, for center Brayden Schenn, winger Wayne Simmonds and a second-round draft pick, on June 23, 2011. The Kings got Carter from Columbus, where the Flyers had traded him; the Kings sent Jack Johnson and a first-round pick to the Blue Jackets for Carter on Feb. 23, 2012.

Although Richards has played here since the trade, a good-sized crowd of reporters waited for him after practice — but he left without speaking to the media. Carter did stop to speak and said he was enjoying his return, which was delayed by an injury and the quirks of the NHL schedule.

“It’s always fun,” he said. “It will be my first game back here so I’m looking forward to it. I had six good years here and I had a good time.

“It’s kind of weird how it all worked out. It’s taken a while. This is a huge game for both teams. We both need points right now so it should be a good one.”

He said he anticipated some jeers from the crowd Monday night. “It seems like everybody that goes back to play their old team gets booed. That’s just the way it is,” Carter said.

He also said that while he didn’t want to leave the Flyers, “things worked out pretty well for us. We won the Stanley Cup. Play in L.A., it’s a pretty good setup.”

We’ll have more in a little while about Simmonds, who has a career-best 54 points and, with 24 goals, is four from matching his career high in that category.