Kings hope to keep season, Kopitar’s career going in Game 4 vs. Avalanche 

LOS ANGELES -- It can’t end yet, not this way, not this early.

The Los Angeles Kings aren’t ready for an early exit in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They want to keep it going for each other, for their organization, for their fans. But most of all they want to keep it going for Anze Kopitar, their captain, the backbone of the Kings for two decades who’s retiring after the playoffs.

“This whole season we’ve been cherishing every moment. We’re not ready to let that go,” Kings defenseman Brandt Clarke said. “We want him around, we want him in this locker room, we want him to be our leader for this whole run. So, we’re still pushing as hard as we can, he’s pushing as hard as he can.”

The Kings will have to push more than they have at any point in this best-of-7 series when they face the Colorado Avalanche and elimination in Game 4 of the Western Conference First Round at Crypto.com Arena on Sunday (4:30 p.m. ET; HBO MAX, FDSNSC, truTV, TNT, ALT, TVAS2, SNP, SNW, SN360).

The captain of the Kings since 2016, Kopitar helped lead them to Stanley Cup championships in 2012 and 2014. He won the Selke Trophy, awarded annually to the League’s top defensive forward, in 2015-16 and 2017-18. 

He has 1,316 points (452 goals, 864 assists) in 1,521 career games, all with the Kings, who selected him with the No. 11 pick in the 2005 NHL Draft. He became Los Angeles' all-time scoring leader on March 14, when he passed Marcel Dionne (1,307 points; 550 goals, 757 assists in 921 games). 

The 38-year-old also has 89 points (27 goals, 62 assists) in 106 career playoff games. He has zero points in three games against the Avalanche this postseason and is averaging 19:14 of ice time per game.

Kopitar announced in September that he would retire from the NHL after the season, his 20th in the League. He was audibly and visibly emotional after the Kings’ final regular-season game on April 11, when he thanked the team and fans for their support throughout his career following a 1-0 win against the Edmonton Oilers.

Throughout the regular season, opposing teams honored him when he was in their arenas, be it with video tributes, ovations, opposing players shaking his hand or all of the above.

“Yeah, it’s nice. I mean, it’s been going on a little bit now. It’s very nice obviously and it’s a very humbling feeling that every team has obviously decided to do that,” Kopitar said on April 16, when the Calgary Flames honored him after their 3-1 win against the Kings at Scotiabank Saddledome. “It’s great but on the other side, I’m happy that it’s playoff time now and we can just put this aside and go and compete.”

Now Kopitar’s true career finale is looming, and the Kings want to prolong the inevitable as long as possible.

“I think that’s probably going to be in the back of some of the guys’ minds, but ultimately you have to play,” Los Angeles interim coach D.J. Smith said after the 4-2 loss to Colorado in Game 3 on Thursday.  “The fans were outstanding tonight, the energy was outstanding. I think we have to give them a win. We have to give them something. 

“Right from morning skate, just being in this building and the fans, when we score, that playoff buzz was incredible. I think to a man, we want to give them a real good outing and then push this series back to Colorado.”

The Avalanche are up 3-0, but this has not been a one-sided series. The first two games were decided by one goal, and Game 3 almost was, too, before Colorado scored an empty-net goal late. The Kings have been so close but haven’t gotten over the top. This is their last chance to extend the series for themselves, for Kopitar. 

“I think obviously we want to win for him, we want to win for everyone in this locker room,” Clarke said. “We have a really tight-knit group in here that we really just want to push for each other. So yeah, he’s our rock and we want to do everything we can to have him keep playing and have us keep playing as well.”