Anže Kopitar spent 20 years in the Los Angeles Kings jersey and became a club legend. Photo: AP
“Thank you, Kopi!”: standing ovation for Kopitar in the last game of his career
Slovenian hockey ace Anže Kopitar ended his rich sports career after his Los Angeles Kings team lost 1:5 to the Colorado Avalanche in the first round of the North American NHL playoffs. The series ended with a 4-0 victory for the favored team from Denver.
Kopitar, a two-time Stanley Cup winner, announced his retirement before the season, which became official after his fourth straight loss in the series against the NHL’s top favorites.
Kopitar is in his last game, he played it in front of a full home audience in the Crypto.com arena, played 17:52 minutes and recorded one shot on goal, one successful run and 67 percent of the referee’s shots in the statistics. He did not register as a scorer or passer in this series.
After the end of the match, the visiting players, after the classic handshake of the two teams in the middle of the ice, went a little further with the 38-year-old Hrušičan, who left an extraordinary mark on the NHL and became one of the best hockey players of the Kings in history, and surely a place in the hall of fame awaits him in the future.
In 2012 and 2014, he became the NHL champion with the team from the City of Angels, and in his 20-season long career, he also signed many franchise records and awards in the strongest hockey league in the world.
Kopitar was selected 11th overall in the 2005 draft and spent his entire career with the Kings.
He demonstrated a professional attitude and dedication to hockey, earning him the deep respect of all teammates, rivals and fans. In the last minutes, they greeted their hero with a standing ovation and loudly shouted his name: “Thank you, Kopi!”
“I’ll shed a tear, but that’s life”
“It’s definitely a bittersweet moment. I will shed another tear, but this is life… The last 20 years have been an extraordinary experience for me. I experienced everything, good times, bad times and some ugly things. Even defeat in the end is not the way I would like to say goodbye, but that’s the way it is and you have to live with it,” said the 38-year-old Hrušičan after the last game, which Colorado won 5:1 and thus won the series without defeat.
From the ice surface of the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, the “boy from Slovenia”, as he was called when he arrived in the NHL at the age of 18, said goodbye to a standing ovation from the home crowd. He was also honored by his teammates, who surrounded him after the match and escorted him off the pitch. Kopitar played all 20 seasons in the strongest hockey league in the world for the Kings.
“I started to realize that this is the last game there somewhere five, six minutes before the end. I have never had this feeling in the last 20 years. Before, I always thought about the next season after the season was over. Now that won’t happen anymore. For now, it’s still hard to grasp,” he explained his feelings to journalists.
Looking back at his children, eleven-year-old Neža and nine-year-old Jakob, he added: “But there are also two reasons why I will enjoy the coming seasons as well… Due to my career, I have only been a part-time father to them so far. Now they will have their father at their disposal all the time.”
