The final minutes of the game in Los Angeles lost all competitive momentum with the series decided. The game gave way to symbolism. It was no longer about the result, but about the conclusion of a story that went beyond the framework of the franchise and went down in the history of the league. It wasn’t just local fans who talked about Kopitar’s importance in North American hockey. After the final buzzer, Colorado players stopped by — not out of protocol, but out of respect. “I really have a lot of respect for him. Everyone in this league thinks the same, it’s a true professional,” said the Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog.
Now there will be more time for the role of father
It was even more emotional in the locker room and at the press conference, where his children, eleven-year-old Neža and two years younger Jakob, stood by his side. “It’s a bittersweet moment. I’ll shed another tear, but that’s life. The last 20 years have been amazing,” he said Anže Kopitar. But he added: “Defeat was not the way I wanted to end my career.”
He was most direct when he talked about the moment when he understood that the end was near. “Five or six minutes before the end I first thought this was it. Before, you always look ahead. There is no pathos in these words, but a calm acceptance of the end of a long journey. He added a personal dimension that goes beyond sports. “There are two reasons why I will enjoy it for years to come,” he said, looking back at the children. “I was often an absent father because of my career. Now I’ll be able to make up for it.”
Drew Doughtywho was his teammate for 18 seasons, can hardly imagine the locker room without him. “He has had an outstanding career and has contributed enormously to this club. It will be very difficult to play without him,” he said. Coach DJ Smith but he added: “He knew the names of the children of all the players in the team. That says more than any statistic.”
A quiet leader without the need for headlights
When he stepped onto the ice in the NHL in 2006 as the first Slovenian, he was not just a rookie, but a player who acted as if he had been there for years. In his debut against Anaheim, he scored two goals, finished the season with 61 points, and quickly showed that he will be the playmaker for the Los Angeles Kings. “Nobody gives you anything in the NHL,” he said at the time. A thought that became the foundation of his career.
In 20 seasons, he played 1,521 games and collected 1,316 points (452 goals, 864 assists), which puts him at the top of LA Kings history. He was their most effective player for fifteen consecutive seasons. He added 89 points in 107 games in the playoffs, but the numbers don’t capture his impact. His greatest strength was versatility. He was an organizer of the game, an extremely reliable attacker defensively and a player who knew how to control the rhythm of matches. The Selke Trophy (2016, 2018) and the Lady Byng Trophy attest to his influence. The 2017/18 season with 92 points stands out in particular, and in his career he scored the decisive goal for his team 79 times.
The highlights were the Stanley Cups in 2012 and 2014. The first, won by the LA Kings as the eighth team after the regular season, remains one of the biggest stories in NHL playoff history. Kopitar was key then – not only in the attack, but especially in the game without the puck, where he neutralized the best players of the rivals. “We believed in each other,” he recalled of that march.
He became captain in 2016 and held that role for almost a decade. His management was quiet, without big words, but with constant diligence on the ice and in the dressing room. “I won’t be the loudest, but I’ll always be ready,” was his motto.
From Jesenice to the city of angels
His story did not begin in Los Angeles, but in Jesenice, where he took his first hockey steps in his home club, learned the basics of the game and, above all, developed a love for hockey that accompanied him throughout his career. He emphasized several times that he had to leave Jesenice if he wanted to take the next step in his development, because only going abroad opened the way to real professional hockey.
At the age of 16, he went to Sweden, to Södertälje, where he quickly drew attention to himself in the youth selections. At the same time, he faced a challenging period of adaptation – a new environment, a foreign language and distance from home were part of everyday life, which he later often described as one of the key experiences. “It was one of the most difficult periods of my career,” he said, describing his early days in Sweden. There he developed discipline and a professional approach. “There are no shortcuts, you have to work every day,” he emphasized. It was this path that led him to the 2005 draft, where he was selected eleventh overall by the Los Angeles Kings.
Playing for your country is something special
He had an even more prominent role in the national team. He played 51 games for Slovenia and collected 15 goals and 40 assists, but the numbers in this context tell only part of the story. The greatest moment remains the Olympic Games in Sochi 2014, where he captained Slovenia to the historic quarter-finals. PyeongChang 2018 also confirmed that this generation did not just perform at the games under five rounds, but played for the result. “When you play for your country, it’s something special,” he said several times.
His last match in the national team was on August 29, 2021 at the Olympic qualifiers in Oslo. Slovenia did not qualify for the Olympic Games for the third time in a row, before that it lost to Denmark and Norway, and against South Korea it won 4:1. Kopitar contributed a goal and three assists. He also appeared in four world championships, but the Slovenian national team did not remain in the elite division of world hockey during his time. It remains one of the few unfulfilled goals of the generation he led.
Homecoming and the end of an era
After the end of his career, Anže Kopitar is returning home. He will live in Slovenia with his wife Ines and two children, where he wants to make up for missed family life. Son Jakob already plays hockey, and his father will now be able to be more present in his everyday life. “I always knew I would come back,” he emphasized several times.
When asked how he would like to be remembered, he answered without words. “Especially as a good teammate. Well, as a good teammate and two-time Stanley Cup winner. That will be fine.” Kopitar’s farewell does not only mean the end of his career, but also the end of the period in which Slovenian hockey had its permanent ambassador on the biggest stage. The question remains whether he will ever have one again.
