{"id":263275,"date":"2026-04-12T00:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T00:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/263275\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T00:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T00:40:10","slug":"anze-kopitar-honored-after-kings-beat-nemesis-oilers-in-home-finale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/263275\/","title":{"rendered":"Anze Kopitar honored after Kings beat nemesis Oilers in home finale"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When the final horn sounded Saturday on the Kings\u2019 1-0 matinee win over the Edmonton Oilers, Anze Kopitar<\/a> made his way to center ice, a microphone in his hand and his heart in pieces.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you very much,\u201d he said to the fans, his voice cracking. \u201cThank you for being here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kopitar then held his hands in front of him and folded his fingers into the shape of a heart before skating away \u2014 not quite into the sunset, but headed in that direction.<\/p>\n

Kopitar announced in September that this season would be his last, so unless the Kings make the playoffs \u2014 a distinct possibility after the team\u2019s fourth win a row and fifth in six games, its best streak of the season \u2014 Saturday marked the final home appearance of a brilliant 20-year career spent entirely in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The Kings\u2019 Anze Kopitar vies for position in front of the Oilers\u2019 Darnell Nurse during the second period on Saturday at Crypto.com Arena.<\/p>\n

(Scott Strazzante\/For The Times)<\/p>\n

And the announced crowd of 18,145 at Crypto.com Arena made sure he knew that parting is such sweet sorrow, standing and cheering long after the game had ended.<\/p>\n

\u201cEventually it was going to happen,\u201d Kopitar, 38, reflected before the game. \u201cWhether it was this year or two years from now, there was going to be a last day. And I\u2019m very OK with my decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kopitar will leave having written his name all over the Kings\u2019 record book. He\u2019s the all-time franchise leader in points (1,314), assists (862), game-winning goals (79) and games played (1,518). He ranks third in goals (452) and power-play goals (129). <\/p>\n

And most importantly, he played a starring role on the Kings\u2019 only two Stanley Cup championships, leading both the 2011-12 and 2013-14 teams in goals, assists and points.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver 700 people have put the Kings\u2019 uniform on,\u201d said Daryl Evans, who was one of the 700 before retiring to become a broadcaster with the team. \u201cHe stands at the top of the mountain as one of the greatest \u2014 if not the greatest \u2014 to do so. He\u2019s a great hockey player, as we can all see. But he\u2019s a better person off the ice.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s that second part, Evans said, that will make Kopitar difficult to replace.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecords are made to be beaten. But the intangibles, the things that he did as the team\u2019s captain, the leadership that he provided, the type of a player he was, very unselfish,\u201d Evans said. \u201cHe\u2019s one of those guys who\u2019s a special player.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kings got the only goal they would need Saturday 7:34 into the first period when Artemi Panarin stripped Edmonton\u2019s Evan Bouchard of the puck at the Kings\u2019 blue line and took off the other way, skating in alone on Oilers\u2019 goalie Connor Ingram, then beating him on a wrist shot from between the circles.<\/p>\n

\"Kings <\/p>\n

Kings players react as Anze Kopitar speaks to fans after his final regular-season home game, a 1-0 win over the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday.<\/p>\n

(Scott Strazzante\/For The Times)<\/p>\n

The goal was Panarin\u2019s ninth in 23 games since joining the Kings just ahead of the Olympic break. Edmonton nearly pulled that back midway through the period when Curtis Lazar tipped the puck by Kings\u2019 goalie Anton Forsberg, only to have defenseman Cody Ceci dive through the crease and swipe it away with a desperate one-handed wave of his stick.<\/p>\n

Forsberg was brilliant the rest of the way, stopping 27 shots to post his 11th career shutout and win his season-best fourth game in a row, preserving the Kings\u2019 one-point lead over Nashville in the race for the Western Conference\u2019s final wild-card playoff berth.<\/p>\n

The son of a coach, Kopitar was born in the former Yugoslavia, in the mining town of Jesenice near the border with Austria, an area that became part of Slovenia when that country declared independence just before Kopitar\u2019s fourth birthday.<\/p>\n

At 16, he led the new country\u2019s first-tier professional league in scoring, so he moved to Sweden in search of a challenge \u2014 and led that country\u2019s top junior league with 49 points in 30 games. That drew the attention of the Kings, who took Kopitar with the 11th overall pick in the 2005 draft.<\/p>\n

Fourteen months later he became the first Slovenian to play in the NHL, making his debut as a teenager and scoring two goals against the Ducks. He never looked back \u2014 nor looked to play elsewhere, twice signing contract extensions with the Kings rather than test the free-agent market. (Not that he needed to test the free-agent market since he made more than $140 million in his two decades with the Kings, becoming the best-paid player in team history.)<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always felt extremely comfortable in L.A.,\u201d said Kopitar, whose two children were born here. \u201cThe organization has been world-class since I got here, so I had no desire to go anywhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Anze <\/p>\n

Anze Kopitar celebrates with the Stanley Cup after the Kings\u2019 win over the New Jersey Devils in 2012.<\/p>\n

(Robert Gauthier \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

As a result only six players in league history have played more games with a single organization, making Kopitar\u2019s name synonymous with the franchise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe greatest to play for the Kings,\u201d said Luc Robitaille<\/a>, the franchise leader in goals (557) as a player and now the team\u2019s president. \u201cWhat\u2019s he meant to this franchise \u2014 you know this franchise never won and he came along and we won two [Stanley Cups]. So he deserves all the credits and everything that\u2019s coming his way.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also among the last of a dying breed: a two-way center who stood out on both ends of the ice, but was also gentlemanly enough to win the Lady Byng trophy three times. Only one player has won the NHL\u2019s top sportsmanship award more often this century.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery coach would love to have him because he never cheats the game,\u201d Evans said of Kopitar, who this month was also nominated for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, which recognizes the player who \u201cbest exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to ice hockey.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got a lot of pride and he doesn\u2019t want to let his teammates down,\u201d Evans said. \u201cHe\u2019s been a student of the game from Day 1. He plays the game the right way. If you could tell a player \u2018watch somebody,\u2019 there\u2019s a guy you want to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kopitar\u2019s numbers have declined this season, owing partly to a pair of lower-body injuries that caused him to miss significant time in both October and January. That\u2019s left him on pace to finish with fewer than 16 goals in a full season for just the third time while his 24 assists and 36 points are career lows. <\/p>\n

But he has the best plus\/minus number on the team and he\u2019s winning a career-best 57.7% of his faceoffs, including four crucial draws deep in the Kings\u2019 end in the final minute Saturday. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been, obviously, an up-and-down season,\u201d he said. \u201cSome good, some bad, some ugly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kopitar admits the goodbyes have been emotional at times. On his final visit to Madison Square Garden last month, for example, he and former teammate Jonathan Quick exchanged several hugs after the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m enjoying it,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019m not sad about it. I guess I\u2019m staying in the moment and enjoying the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The Kings\u2019 Anze Kopitar tries to flip a shot past Edmonton goaltender Connor Ingram Saturday at Crypto.com Arena.<\/p>\n

(Scott Strazzante\/For The Times)<\/p>\n

The Kings can extend Kopitar\u2019s farewell tour by at least a couple of weeks by making the playoffs, a task that\u2019s looking much more likely than it did a week ago. After Saturday\u2019s win the Kings not only lead Nashville in the wild-card race, holding a game in hand over the Predators, but they are just two points out of third place in the Pacific Division standings. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe hopes he\u2019s going to play here again,\u201d Kings coach D.J. Smith said of Kopitar\u2019s possible postseason encore.<\/p>\n

Just where and when the team might open the postseason \u2014 if, indeed, it qualifies \u2014 is up in the air since the Kings could finish anywhere from first to fifth in the division, leaving them with more than a dozen possible playoff scenarios. So when the team leaves for its final three-game trip of the season Sunday, the players have been told to pack for 10 days. <\/p>\n

Either way Kopitar isn\u2019t changing his mind; when the Kings\u2019 season ends \u2014 whenever that is \u2014 his career will end as well. So will his time in Los Angeles since Kopitar is selling his Manhattan Beach home and moving back to Slovenia to accept a new role as a full-time father.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to be a dad,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m going to just relax and see how long it takes to get bored and then we\u2019ll figure it out from there. Of course I\u2019m going to miss this place. But it was a family decision, obviously, to move.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as this place is super nice and the community was great to us, it\u2019s time to slow down the tempo a little bit and enjoy life. But I\u2019ll make it back here for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the final horn sounded Saturday on the Kings\u2019 1-0 matinee win over the Edmonton Oilers, Anze Kopitar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28339,108514,7363,115546,2070,423,115545,664,48,52,51,47,50,49,9442,1417,595,278,427,315,8843],"class_list":{"0":"post-263275","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-anze-kopitar","9":"tag-center-ice","10":"tag-country","11":"tag-daryl-evans","12":"tag-edmonton-oilers","13":"tag-game","14":"tag-game-winning-goal","15":"tag-king","16":"tag-la","17":"tag-la-headlines","18":"tag-la-news","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","21":"tag-los-angeles-news","22":"tag-player","23":"tag-point","24":"tag-saturday","25":"tag-season","26":"tag-team","27":"tag-time","28":"tag-way"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}