Anze Kopitar would love to retire hoisting a Stanley Cup for Kings

Luc Robitaille knew that his hockey player career was over when it took him more to prepare his body beaten for a match than to play it.

“This has become more and more hard physically,” said Robitaille, whose next judgment was the temple of fame. “I think I knew at that time.”

And once his mind was decided, there was no going back.

For Anze Kopitar, who is at the top of good health, the decision was a little different. The longtime center of the Kings announced last month that at 38 years old, he would retire after this season and spend more time with his family. But, like Robitaille, there will be no going back.

“I’m not going to change my mind,” he said.

In fact, it will not change anything. Kopitar said he was approaching this season, his 20th with the Kings, in the same way as he approached the first 19.

“In recent years, I told myself that I had to take advantage of it because you don’t know when the end is com[ing]”He said.” So I appreciated him. I obviously have a lot of fun, I still play the game. This year will not be different.

“The emphasis is always put in this season.”

A season starting Tuesday when the Kings welcome the Avalanche du Colorado. But while Kopitar begins the season in the same way as still, he has hoped a different ending since the last four years of the Kings ended with losses in qualifying series in the first round against the EDMONTON Oilers.

Another title of the Stanley Cup would be a nice separation gift, especially since Kopitar, entering a 10th season as a team team as a captain, would be the first man to hoist the trophy, an honor that went to Dustin Brown when the Kings won in 2012 and 2014.

“I would like to win every year. I would like to win this year,” he said.

“My children were not born when we won, so I would like to win to be able to feel this feeling too.”

Captain of the Kings Anze Kopitar patina in a match against the Chicago Blackhawks in March.

(Michael Reaves / Getty Images)

However, the Kopitar season ends, his career will end with him joining Robitaille, now president of the Kings, at the Hockey Hall of Fame. He is the leader of all Kings time in the matches (1,454), the assists (838) and the winning goals (78) and ranks in the first three in terms of goals, points, more minus and electric play scores.

And only nine players in the NHL history have played more matches with a team than Kopitar, who spent his entire career with the Kings.

Unlike Robitaille, he barely broods with retirement. He led the Kings with 46 assists and finished second with 67 points last season, playing in 81 of the 82 games. He also won his third Lady Byng Memorial Trophy, which returns to the player presenting the best sporting spirit and Gentleman’s driving in the NHL.

But his two children – his daughter Neza, 10, is a talented artistic skater and his son Jakob, 9, plays hockey – deserve more time and attention, he said.

“I always like to be hockey and I’m still productive,” said Kopitar. “But on the other hand, children need their father to be more present and be a father, not a hockey player. I can leave according to my own conditions and not be forced to retire because of the injuries and because the body does not hold.”

Anze Kopitar and his wife, Ines, attend a Lakers match at Crypto.com Arena in January 2024.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

It was not Robitaille’s experience. An ankle fractured at the end of the career and back pain that was barely out of bed, led to his retirement in 2006, less than six months before the NHL Kopitar’s beginnings.

“It seemed to me in a way that I had hidden everything from lemon. There was nothing left,” said Robitaille. “I was really at peace.”

As for what advice he would give to his captain, Robitaille said he would tell Kopitar to take the time to stop and feel the roses during his last trip to the League.

“If you listen to 99% of guys who retire in any sport, the only thing they lack is the [locker] Room, “he said.” So when you know that you are towards the end, you must make sure to pay attention to each of these little moments that you will miss for the next 50 years of your life.

“You play a game. You are 30 years old or 40 years old – 38 for Kopi – and he plays a game. It’s incredible. Most people don’t do that in their lives, you know? ”

Kopitar’s decision comes with the kings at a crossroads. They equaled team records for points (105) and victories (48) last season while making a 31-6-4 franchise record in the first full season of Jim Hiller as a coach. This earned the team second in the Pacific division, its best finish in a decade.

Captain of the Kings Anze Kopitar, on the left, spoke to defender Drew Doughty in a match against the Winnipeg jets in December 2023.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

However, the playoffs were once again died, however, the ilers eliminating the kings.

Managing Director Rob Blake resigned four days later and was replaced by Ken Holland, who won four Stanley cups as Director of Detroit Red Wings. The heart of the Kings is also in transition because when Kopitar puts itself next to it, only defender Drew Doughty will remain their winning teams from the Stanley Cup.

“Pass the torch, [we]”I have tried for a few years, trying to mentor some of the children of this locker room,” said Kopitar. “Maybe that’s what it is.”

Holland had mixed results in his first summer with the Kings, adding Corey Perry attackers (who will miss the first month of the season due to a knee injury) and Joel Armia, defender Brian Dumoulin and Cody this and goalkeeper Anton Forsberg, and the Union of Re-Signature Andrei Kuzmenko.

The best scorers Kevin Fiala and Adrian Kempe, who each have 35 goals, each have 35 goals, the Warren Foegele wingers and Quinton Byfield and the goalkeeper Darcy Kuemper, who had an average of 2.02 goals and finished third in the vote of the Vezina trophy.

But Holland lost the veteran defender Vladislav Gavrikov at the New York Rangers and failed to win Mitch Marner, the most sought after summer, who found himself in Las Vegas.

And now he is the first director general of the team in two decades which was forced to reflect on a future without Anze Kopitar.

Anze Kopitar took the ice before a match against the Winnipeg jets in December 2023.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

“We will really enjoy having Kopi in the programming this year. But next summer, it will be a big void,” said Holland on the central podcast of the Canucks. “He is tall and strong. And it is difficult to find large hundreds of strong and talented.

“He is very intelligent. And I think the team follows his example.”

As for Kopitar, he does not think beyond the next nine months. He has the rest of his life to understand what comes next.

“I didn’t really think about what will happen [next]Except to be at home for my children, “he said.” I’m going to take my time and see what, see what life throws me.

“I’m going to miss the hockey match. What I’m not going to miss is working, preparing for the season, every hour that you have to devote. But the game itself, of course, I will miss it. It is here for a better part of 35 years. But listen, summers will be more pleasant.”