Matt Murray has been a Kings fan since the late '80s, when Wayne Gretzky grabbed headlines by defecting to the West Coast. Since then, he has been a card-carrying bandwagon member as the club soared in popularity with their sole Stanley Cup appearance to their position near the bottom of the Pacific. But things are looking brighter, as he is anxious to witness the rise of the new Kings.
Kopitar announces presence with authority at YoungStars game
Anze Kopitar may have been on the losing team Tuesday, but he made his presence felt throughout the game. Let's make it totally clear right now, this game was nothing more than a exhibition, but I was looking forward to it, because Kopitar would be facing his arch nemesis from Pittsburgh, Evgeni Malkin, who leads him in points for the Calder Trophy.
On his very first shot of his first shift, Kopitar shot the puck past Atlanta's Kari Lehtonen to lift the Western Youngstars to a 1-0 lead. Anze skated into the zone with the puck, then dropped it back to Dallas' Jussi Jokinen. Jokinen passed it over to Shea Weber, who touch-passed back over to Kopitar. Anze buried it and skated off the ice.
Down 2-1, Peter Budaj had stopped the puck, and was trying to handle the puck and pass it out of the zone under pressure. He floated a soft pass over to center ice behind Kopitar, and it looked to be a turnover. But Anze flipped around and picked up the puck skating backward then flipped back forward. He snapped a pass over to hometown entrant Jussi Jokinen, who one-timed it past Lehtonen to tie up the game.
Meanwhile, Evgeni Malkin hasn't figured into any scoring thus far, and he actually threw a check on Colorado's Wojtek Wolski, which illicited a response in the announcer booth. He then took his place cherry-picking, when he caught an outlet pass and skated in one-on-one against Budaj. It looked to be an easy goal, but Budaj stopped it and play continued. Malkin continued to just skate in the faceoff circle and got another outlet pass, and he skated in and tried to feed other Eastern players, but Budaj turned them all away.
The clock is running during this contest, so the three periods of 10 minute play is flying by.
Edmonton's Ladislav Smid was able to disrupt the Eastern team's flow, and kncoked the puck out to a waiting Kopitar, who skated in on Lehtonen. He faked like he was going to snap a wrister, causing Lehtonen to bounce up a bit. Anze then tucked it in and backhanded it under his pads for his second goal of the game.
With the next four goals scored by the East, three of them assisted by New Jersey's Zach Parise, the game was figuring to be a blowout. However, Malkin still hasn't figured in any scoring, hovering around mid-ice and waiting for a pass. Meanwhile, Kopitar was skating in, and trying to feed his linemates, which he pretty much does for the Kings.
He assisted on Anaheim's Ryan Getzlaf's two goals of the game, and would have assisted on a third goal by San Jose's Matt Carle wide-open shot, if Carle didn't shoot it wide. Meanwhile, the cherry-picking Malkin had another breakaway, and he attempted to skate in a fake out Budaj. The only person he faked out was himself, as he mishandled the puck into the corner.
So at the end of the game, the final score read 9-8, but the only score I was paying attention to was 5 points (2G, 3A) for Kopitar to zero points for Malkin. What does this mean? Absolutely nothing. Like I said, this game was nothing more than an exhibition. But as a Kings fan trapped in a season of dispair, you have to find your victories where you can get them.
