For all of his accomplishments, Anže Kopitar is a player who rarely dominates NHL conversations these days.
Whether it’s his age (35), the fact that his point totals don’t neatly sum up the his value, the fact he plays on the West Coast, or the way we are unavoidably drawn to new stars every year, Kopitar seems to consistently fly under the radar.
Going unnoticed, however, is harder to do when you open the playoffs with a four-point game that drives your team’s victory against a favoured Edmonton Oilers team that looks like a Stanley Cup contender.
That performance was highlighted by a goal with just 17 seconds left on the clock to complete a comeback and force overtime.
That’s hardly a beautiful goal, and none of the three assists Kopitar produced were works of art either. But the Kings captain made smart plays all game long and put his team in a position to win.
While the Oilers only outshot Los Angeles by five, they dominated the game at even strength. For most of the game, Kopitar’s minutes were the only thing keeping the Kings alive.
Not only are those numbers dramatic, they don’t even account for his work on the power play, which included his equalizing goal and an assist on the winner. All-in-all, when Kopitar was on the ice, Los Angeles outshot Edmonton 22-9. When he sat, the Oilers had a 31-13 advantage.
Statistics from one game don’t necessarily prove anything definitive about a player, but this performance served as a high-profile reminder that Kopitar’s still got it. Even at the age of 35, his regular season offensive output matched what we’ve come to expect from him.
In fact, his goals per game (0.34) and assists per game (0.56) almost exactly match his career averages (0.30 and 0.58, respectively).
Kopitar wasn’t just selling out for offense, either. His defensive zone start rate (52.3 percent) was the second-highest number of his career, his possession metrics were steady, and his defensive point shares mark (2.5) was the sixth-highest number of his 17-year career — and his best effort since 2017-18.
His expected plus-minus this season based on Hockey-Reference’s xGF and xGA (+13.3) was his second-best effort since the site began tracking that data in 2014-15.
All of that is to say that Kopitar has been up to his old tricks all season long. His Game 1 performance probably shouldn’t come at a surprise, but it does because the spotlight has shone so brightly on Connor McDavid and the Oilers.
Edmonton has four forwards who managed more points than Kopitar during the regular season, but that doesn’t mean they have four more impactful players. It would be impossible to make the case that the Los Angeles star is the best player in a series that includes McDavid, but he’s someone the Oilers need to find an answer for.
Based on what we saw in Game 1, Kopitar has the ability to be at the centre of a first-round upset. He’s led the playoffs in scoring twice on the way to two Stanley Cup wins — and even in his mid-thirties, his two-way game remains as potent as ever.
