Kopitar flourishes in second season as Kings captain

LOS ANGELES -- Anze Kopitar just had the best regular season of his NHL career, scoring 92 points (35 goals, 57 assists) and leading the Los Angeles Kings to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2016.
For longtime teammate Dustin Brown, it's not hard to figure out why.

"This year, he's having more fun than he's ever had," Brown said. "The biggest difference, and this was probably his] year in a nutshell, is last year was the first time I think he didn't have fun playing hockey."
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No one associated with Kings had much fun last season, including Brown, who was removed as captain before the season and replaced by Kopitar.
The result was not what the Kings were hoping for; Kopitar had 52 points (12 goals, 40 assists) in 76 games, his lowest number of points in an 82-game season.
The Kings missed the playoffs by eight points. Coach Darryl Sutter and general manager Dean Lombardi, the men who led the Kings to the Stanley Cup in 2012 and 2014, were fired.
"It was no good at all, and then you almost start doubting yourself a little bit and it's no fun," Kopitar said.
But the Kings will play the Vegas Golden Knights in the Western Conference First Round. Game 1 is at T-Mobile Arena on Wednesday (10 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, TVAS).

They are back in the playoffs in large part because of Kopitar, who used his disappointing 2016-17 season as fuel to turn things around.
"You can spiral in a place where it's definitely no fun and sometimes hard to get out of," Kopitar said. "So, I needed a really good offseason and I had a really good summer."
Kopitar's younger brother, Gasper, who plays for Manchester of the ECHL, had an indication this could be special season. He noticed a difference in his brother when Anze returned to Southern California after spending most of the summer in their native Slovenia.
"He's persistent as all [heck]," Gasper said. "He'll go against everything. He knew his last season wasn't anything that he should be used to, I guess.

"His summer training really picked up. I saw him briefly before the season started, before I had to go to Manchester, and just physically looking at him, I said even before he stepped on the ice that's he's going to have a good year."
Kings coach John Stevens had planned to slightly shorten the length of Kopitar's shifts to keep him fresher throughout the season, but that changed on Oct. 18 when second-line center Jeff Carter lacerated a tendon in his left ankle in the sixth game of the season and missed 55 games.
Kings general manager Rob Blake, a Hall of Fame defenseman, said Kopitar is a lot like the low-key Joe Sakic, a Hall of Fame forward, the general manager of the Colorado Avalanche and a teammate of Blake's in Colorado from 2000-06.
"There's not a lot of flash outside at all," Blake said. "But he plays the right way. He's had really good coaching from Day One here where he's understood that you might have to sacrifice a few points, but you're going to get more respect through the League and you'll be a better player.
"This year, it's been full circle with the demand on him defensively, the demand with Carter out, the draws, the penalty kill. But it's also been coupled with his offensive production."

Kopitar flourished with the increased demands and responsibility; he finished the season with the highest average ice time per game (22:05) of any forward in the NHL and 31 more points than last season.
"You live and learn," Kopitar said. "You learn from stuff that you go through. I learned a bunch of stuff from (Brown), learned some stuff by myself last year and I'm still learning right now.
"It's not like I've perfected it by any means. You just try to go with it and think about stuff that maybe will matter. But you just try to really improve and just grow and mature."
Brown could tell Kopitar was feeling pressure last season. There were nagging injuries, a fresh eight-year contract and the captaincy.

"Last year was a tough transition for him," said Brown, who, like Kopitar, made sure their friendship stayed strong after the transition of the captaincy. "It's more responsibility than people realize. There's a learning curve even for a guy who is an (alternate) captain."
But Kopitar's hard summer work resulted in a bounce-back season that has the 2016 winner of the Selke Trophy, given to the best defensive forward in the League, in the conversation for Hart Trophy, which is awarded to the most valuable player.
"In all honesty, it's encouraging for me because I've never been in those (Hart) conversations before," he said. "So, I'm going to say, it's nice to see, yes. It's satisfying. But at the same time, we all know what we're playing for here.
"We're not playing for individual awards because we have a few guys in here that can rack up those awards."
He motioned toward the dressing room stalls of defenseman Drew Doughty, who won the Norris Trophy in 2016 as the League's top defenseman, and goaltender Jonathan Quick, who was a finalist for the Vezina (given to the best goalie) in 2012 and 2016.
"I'm 100 percent sure those are not the awards those guys are playing for," Kopitar said. "And I'm in the same boat. We want the big prize."