MONTREAL — Anze Kopitar has the event circled on his calendar.
It might have looked like just another regular-season game in mid-November, months before the Los Angeles Kings captain's career finale. But as Kopitar skated around the Bell Center during warm-ups, his children, Neza and Jakob, held a “Let's Go Kopi” sign on the visitors' bench.
“This is my favorite play rink or my favorite road skating rink,” Kopitar said. “The history, the culture, the atmosphere—I mean, it doesn’t get any better than that.”
When his children learned this summer that their father felt the same way, “it took them about 15 seconds to convince their mom to book the trip,” he said with a smile.
Joined by his wife and children, Kopitar shared a moment after the game with 25 guests after scoring an assist and plus-3 rating in the Kings' 5-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday night.
Before this season, the 38-year-old Slovenian announced that the 2025-26 season would be the last of his Hall of Fame-worthy career.
Kopitar is a two-time Stanley Cup winner, a two-time Selke Trophy winner as the NHL's best defensive forward (in the era with Patrice Bergeron, Pavel Datsyuk and Alexander Barkov) and a two-time Lady Byng winner.
Instead of trophies and awards this season, he is focused on enjoying every moment.
“If you're an NHL player, you're one of about 700, so there's not that many of us. And sometimes you get caught up in wins and losses and points and all this stuff that you don't like,” he said. “I just want to enjoy it to the fullest. Of course, it's competitive and all that, and I want to win, but you can't lose sight of the fact that you have to enjoy it.”
“We’re very happy and lucky to be in this position… a lot of people would pay a lot of money to be in our position for just a game, maybe two.”
In 1,467 career games, the two-way center has 1,287 points (442 goals, 845 assists) along with 27 goals and 63 assists in 103 playoff games.
Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki told reporters Tuesday morning that he has been rooting for Kopitar since he was a kid.
“The way he plays, the way he carries himself, what a good person he is, what a great leader and player he is,” Suzuki said. “He does everything right. I think that's what makes him a great role model for a lot of people.”
Kopitar said his family will not be joining the Kings as their road trip continues against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday. The only family trip this season is a possible visit to Madison Square Garden in New York, he said.
“I really like everything about Montreal,” he said. “It's a great city, obviously a huge hockey market. And yeah, I've enjoyed every game here.”
THE KING WON, AGAIN
Lately, playing in Montreal has also been about winning.
The Kings won their ninth straight game against the Canadiens in 2021-22. This is their longest active game against another team.
“I'm glad they're in the West,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said.
LACK OF EXECUTION
The Kings scored three goals in a span of 4:05 to take a 3-1 lead early in the second period and never looked back. One word that was heard repeatedly in the Canadiens locker room after the loss: execution.
“We were lacking execution throughout the game and we thought we were just missing a little aggressiveness in the D zone,” Suzuki said. “We were just looking too much, just skating around the zone where we used to kill chances and get the puck out on our end… We seemed to spend a lot of time in the D zone tonight.”
CHANGE LINE
St. Louis tried different combinations and the Canadiens fell behind, placing standout rookie Ivan Demidov instead of Juraj Slafkovski on the front line along with Suzuki and Cole Caufield for several shifts in the second and third periods.
Slafkowski had a rough night, missing the ball twice and playing just 12:12, well below his season average of 17:47.
“It made a difference, just see if there was anything stuck there,” St. Louis said of the line change. “Right now I’m just coaching, trying to figure out where we are and who’s leaving.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 11, 2025.
