The Avalanche await the winner of the Dallas Stars-Minnesota Wild series. The Wild defeated the Stars 3-2 in overtime on Saturday to tie the best-of-7 series 2-2. The Kings, meanwhile, had to swallow the bitter pill of losing in the first round for the fifth consecutive season with losing their captain, their backbone, the cornerstone of their team in Kopitar.<\/p>\n
Forward Adrian Kempe<\/a>\u2019s voice shook as he answered questions on Kopitar. Defenseman Drew Doughty<\/a>,\u00a0Kopitar\u2019s teammate for 18 of his 20 seasons in Los Angeles, struggled to talk of the emotional end.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, I\u2019m trying not to think about it right now, especially during this interview but man, he had an unbelievable career,\u201d Doughty said. \u201cHe just meant so much to this organization, and it\u2019s going to be tough without him.\u201d<\/p>\n The Kings captain since 2016, Kopitar helped lead them to Stanley Cup wins in 2012 and 2014. He won the Selke Trophy, awarded annually to the League\u2019s top defensive forward, in 2015-16 and 2017-18.<\/p>\n Kopitar retires as the Kings\u2019 all-time scoring leader with 1,316 points (452 goals, 864 assists) in 1,521 career games. He passed Marcel Dionne<\/a>\u00a0(1,307 points; 550 goals, 757 assists in 921 games) on March 14 for that milestone. The 38-year-old also had 89 points (27 goals, 62 assists) in 107 career playoff games.<\/p>\n