Results tagged “Anze Kopitar” from Inside the Kings

I didn't want this to get lost in all the Marc Crawford news, but Don did a real nice interview with Anze Kopitar recently. Obviously the interview took place before Tuesday's news, but it's still a good chance to catch up with Kopitar and hear about his experiences at the World Championships and his...trip to Egypt? Here's a video of Kopitar at the World Championships, followed by the Q&A...

This is the final day of the preliminary round of the World Championships. As far as the Kings' interests go, the United States (with Dustin Brown and Patrick O'Sullivan) finished second in Group B and will start the ``qualification'' round with a game Thursday against the third-place team from Group C. That's likely to be Slovakia (with Lubomir Visnovsky), but that group's standings won't be determined until today. Slovenia (with Anze Kopitar) finished fourth in Group B and dropped into the relegation round and will play Friday against the fourth-place team from Group C, which will probably be Norway.

Quite a game up in Halifax today. They're still in pool play in the World Championships. Canada took a 3-0 lead early in the second period. USA pulled within 3-2 on Patrick O'Sullivan's goal 3:09 into the second period, then within 4-3 on Dustin Brown's power-play goal 5:18 into the third period. O'Sullivan assisted on Brown's goal, and Brown had an assist earlier in the game. USA tied it 4-4 seven minutes into the third period and Canada scored the winner with 47 seconds remaining when Dany Heatley one-timed a wobbly pass from Ryan Getzlaf past Craig Anderson. Both teams will advance to the elimination round, which begins Thursday.

Slovenia, with Anze Kopitar, plays Latvia this afternoon and most likely needs a victory to avoid being dropped to a lower division next year.

Officially, that's USA 5, Slovenia 1. Anyone else sense a trend in these World Championships? I wonder if one player has ever scored ALL of the goals for his team in a major international tournament... I suppose it's possible. Anyway, Dustin Brown and Patrick O'Sullivan had assists for Team USA, which next has a big showdown with Canada on Tuesday. Slovenia plays Latvia on Tuesday and probably needs a victory to avoid being relegated to the lower division in next year's World Championships.

The IIHF World Hockey Championships opened today, and Canada beat Slovenia 5-1 in a pool-play game in Halifax. Anze Kopitar scored the only goal for Slovenia. Kopitar's father, Matjaz, is an assistant coach for Slovenia. The United States, with Dustin Brown and Patrick O'Sullivan, plays Latvia at 4:15 p.m. Pacific time.

ANZE KOPITAR

This season: 82 games, 32 goals, 45 assists, minus-15 rating.

Positives: Almost too many to list. After an excellent rookie season, Kopitar played all 82 games and improved his numbers in almost every category. By all accounts, he's a hard worker, a good teammate and a potential team leader. On the ice, he's creative, strong on the puck and has tremendous vision and great hands. What else is there?

Negatives: Someone would have to be fairly creative to come up with a major negative in Kopitar's game. Kopitar's main challenge will be to continue to improve, make his teammates better and fill a team leadership role.

Looking ahead: Kopitar is the Kings' unquestioned No. 1 center, and the only remaining question is, ``How good can he be?'' It's almost shocking to think he doesn't turn 21 until August. His ability to play at a high level will be crucial if the Kings are to

Contract situation: Signed through 2008-09 (cap number of $955,867 next season).

Announced during the game by the Kings:

AS VOTED BY THE MEDIA
Most Valuable Player: Anze Kopitar
"Bill Libby Memorial Award" for Best Newcomer: Jack Johnson
"Mark Bavis Memorial Award" for Outstanding Defenseman: Jack Johnson
Defensive Player: Patrick O'Sullivan

AS VOTED BY THE KINGS PLAYERS
Most Inspirational Player: Dustin Brown
"Ace Bailey Memorial Award" for Unsung Hero: Jeff Giuliano

AS SELECTED BY THE KINGS CARE FOUNDATION
Community Service: Derek Armstrong

AS SELECTED BY THE KINGS BOOSTER CLUB
Most Popular Player: Dustin Brown

No truth to the rumor that Daniel Taylor left the game after the first period, flew to Reading and returned for the start of the third period. Here's some quotes from tonight's postgame...

ERIK ERSBERG
(Re: Game recap) "It felt good to get a win back, especially against this team. They've gone 20 games without a loss so it's good that we could break that streak. It was a fun game. The first goal was kind of my fault so I felt a little bad about that, but I guess it's better to have that in the first minute than the last minute. You have to look at it like, 'There's 59 minutes to make up for it,' so that's how I looked at it."

ANZE KOPITAR
(Re: Game recap) "This is kind of a game we want to play to get ready for next season for the big games. I think we all contributed to this result, and we're happy to get the win."

(Re: finishing season on a high note) "I think right now we're playing for the fans. They've supported us all season when we didn't have a very good season. They've been so loyal to us, and we've got to pay them back with a strong last game. We're playing against the Ducks too, so it should really be buzzing in the building."

(Re: Game recap) "We got down pretty quick on the first shift, but we didn't panic. We knew we had nothing to lose, and that we could play better. We stepped out the gate and outshot them in the first period which really got the crowd in the game. I think we kind of deserved this win. We had a lot of chances that we didn't put in the back of the net at first, but luckily in the end the bounces went our way."

MARC CRAWFORD
(Re: game recap): "We were very deserving of the win tonight. They got the fortunate bounce when Joe Thornton caught our rookie goaltender trying to cheat a little bit and got the one-goal lead. A number of things happened at that point. Erik [Ersberg] really bared down and was great from that point on for the rest of the game. I thought our defense was very stingy tonight and as a team we really checked them into the ground and didn't give them a lot of chances.... When you get the type of performance where all your players play well, it's very gratifying to get the victory."