Last season’s Olympic break came at the perfect time for Dustin Brown.

The Los Angeles Kings’ captain faced challenges throughout the first half of the National Hockey League regular season, but a trip to Sochi, Russia, to represent the United States in the Olympic Winter Games for the second time in his career provided a boost that carried into June.

“It was great for me personally,” Brown said. “I was having a rough year last year, and it kind of broke up my year and gave me a little time to refocus.”

Brown helped the Kings through a dynamite postseason run, starting when the Kings became the fourth team in NHL history to rally from a 3-0 best-of-seven series deficit to beat the San Jose Sharks in seven games.

The Kings went the distance twice more, winning an exhilarating seven-game victories against Anaheim, the top seed in the Western Conference, and then beating the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks before finally knocking off the New York Rangers in five games to win their second Stanley Cup in three years.

“It’s one of those things, just to have an opportunity to do it once … going through the process the second time you win it, you have a much greater appreciation for it,” said Brown, the second U.S.-born captain to lead his team to a Stanley Cup. “It’s what you dream of growing up.”

Brown, a native of Ithaca, N.Y., got his start playing youth hockey at the local Cass Park Rink. The 30-year-old Brown paid homage to his roots by bringing the Stanley Cup to his hometown rink in July.

“It’s always fun to go back,” said Brown, whose wife Nicole is also from Ithaca. “I go back either way, but when you bring the Stanley Cup back, it’s just fun to see how the community reacts.

“You get it for a day, so you want to do things right.”

Brown would like nothing more than to bring the Stanley Cup back to Ithaca for a third time. He recently posted a photo on Twitter of his Stanley Cup ring, noting that it is special to him, but his favorite will be the next one.

“Your hunger grows once you’ve won [the Stanley Cup] because you understand what it means to win,” Brown said. “I think we’re more business-like as a group, probably because we’ve been through it and we know how hard it is. It’s kind of hard to explain, but you really don’t know what you’re playing for until you climb that mountain.

“We have a bunch of guys who have won two, and we want to win again.”

The experience on the U.S. Olympic Team proved significant for Brown during last year’s run to the Stanley Cup. The Americans posted a disappointing fourth-place finish in Sochi — four years after winning silver in Vancouver — but Brown, who was part of that silver-medal-winning team in 2010, broke a month-long scoring slump with two goals and an assist.

“I don’t think the end result was nearly close to what we wanted, but that’s kind of what sports is about,” Brown said of his second Olympic experience. “From a personal experience, it was a great time going over there.”

The high point for Brown was the historic preliminary-round clash between the U.S. and Russia, an instant classic that saw teammate T.J. Oshie score four times in a deciding shootout to defeat the host Russians.

“I’ve had the opportunity to play home countries in those types of tournaments, and I think those are always memorable experiences,” Brown said. “When you get to play the home country, it’s always a pretty cool experience.”

Brown realized the moment was a significant one.

“I thought it was really good for U.S. hockey in terms of excitement about the sport,” Brown said. “I think you get more people watching on the world stage just because it’s not about the sport itself, but more about being part of a country.”

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.