Dustin Brown will spend the Los Angeles Kings' next game on the sidelines, but he doesn't agree with it.
Brown was handed a one-game suspension Sunday after kneeing Tampa Bay Lightning blue-liner Mikhail Sergachev, a ban that will keep him out of an upcoming game against the Carolina Hurricanes.
While it's only a short punishment, it's one Brown feels is undeserved.
"No one knows what's fair anymore," Brown told Josh Cooper of LA Kings Insider. "I mean, I saw it differently than they did. They thought I stuck my knee out. I felt like I was going through and he's sidestepping me. So I hit him with my knee, yeah but it was the result of him making a move laterally when I'm trying to deliver a hit."
Related - Poll: Was Brown's 1-game suspension enough of a punishment?
The incident is Brown's second run-in with the Department of Player Safety this season. Last month, he was fined $10,000 for cross-checking Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Justin Schultz.
"When I think of a knee, I think of a guy sticking his knee out to clip a guy," Brown added. "My play, I thought, was lower-leg contact because he's trying to get out of the way and I'm coming through on my original path but the league decided I stuck my leg out I guess. I don't know exactly what their official statement was."
Brown is eligible to return to the lineup Feb. 15 when the Kings face off against the Penguins.