Mature rookie
I asked Anze Kopitar about his motivation. It seemed obvious to me that as a rookie, his motivation was to make the NHL and show people that he could play at this level, which he certainly accomplished. So I wanted to know about next season, and what would drive him during the summer. Being known as a No. 1 center? Leading the team in scoring? Instead, he gave me an answer that was relatively bland but said a lot about his maturity as a 19 year old.
``The next step is just helping the team make the playoffs,'' Kopitar said. ``That's the only thing I'm looking for next year.''
As a center, Kopitar has played with just about every winger on the roster this season. Marc Crawford certainly isn't shy about moving guys around. I asked Kopitar specifically about his pairing with Dustin Brown, since that connection seems to be working well in the last few games.
``He's a guy who can make plays and hit hard,'' Kopitar said. ``When he's out there, he creates more space for me and everyone beause people are aware of him and he makes plays and hits that give you a couple extra seconds when you have the puck. He's just overall really good.''
More from practice later.
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Rich Hammond has covered the Kings, on a full-time or part-time basis, since the 2000-01 season. He was the beat writer for the entire John Torchetti era and has witnessed Bob Miller singing country music in a Nashville honky-tonk bar. A native of Los Angeles, Rich has worked at the Daily News since 1999 and also serves as the paper's deputy sports editor. E-mail Rich at rich.hammond@dailynews.com.
Jill Painter joined the Daily News in 2000 and during the last eight years she's covered the Dodgers, Cal State Northridge, UCLA, Kings, golf and everything in between. Even though she's from Colorado, she still freezes in the Staples Center press box but always manages to thaw her fingers in time to make deadline. E-mail Jill at jill.painter@dailynews.com.
Being a very long time Kings fan I dont know how to handle this situation. We are used to get the short end of the stick. Wait... we are used to getting a short stick dipped in dog poo!
How we lucked out and ended up with a quality star like Kopitar brings a tear to me eye!