Center Anze Kopitar has been one of the NHL’s premier two-way forwards since he debuted with the Kings in 2006, willingly sacrificing superstar-level point totals for the satisfaction of holding opponents’ top scorers in check. At 35 he not only led the Kings in scoring for the 15th time in the last 16 seasons, he was also a strong candidate to become a three-time winner of the Selke Trophy, awarded to the league’s top defensive forward.
With injuries keeping forwards Kevin Fiala and Gabe Vilardi out of the lineup Monday at Rogers Place for Game 1 of the Kings’ first-round Stanley Cup playoff series against the Edmonton Oilers, the Kings’ success depended even more than usual on Kopitar having a significant impact at both ends of the ice. And he came through emphatically, factoring into all four of the Kings’ goals in a stunning 4-3 overtime comeback.
“Win Game No. 1. That’s all that counts,” Kopitar said of his extraordinary feats in a game in which the Kings held NHL scoring champion Connor McDavid off the scoresheet.
Kopitar tied the score during a power play with 16.7 seconds left in regulation and earned the second assist on Alex Iafallo’s winner, scored during a power play 9 minutes 19 seconds into sudden-death play. The Oilers had set an NHL record with a 32.4% power-play success rate during the season, but the Kings were fourth, at 25.3%.
“Throughout the season, yes, we had a good power play. The percentage showed that,” Kopitar said. “But I feel it was more the timing of the goals versus just relying on the power play. And tonight was no different, obviously, getting the tying goal very late.”
Kopitar’s defensive assignment was to stop Edmonton center Leon Draisaitl, who was second to McDavid in the scoring race. Draisaitl scored the Oilers’ first goal, a lead Evan Bouchard doubled with a five-on-three power-play goal. But Adrian Kempe cut that to 2-1 early in the third period with a nifty backhander and scored from the right circle to cut Edmonton’s lead to 3-2 at 11:23 of the third period.
Kopitar said the Kings weren’t discouraged at being down 2-0. “You’re down two and you can pretty much change the whole momentum of the game with one shot,” he said. “Juice [Kempe] got us going and we were able to roll from there.
“Within a series like that you’re just trying to chip away and build whatever momentum you can build and it worked out for us.”
Minimizing the exceptional skills of Draisaitl is among a long list of tasks the Kings must complete against the Oilers, who added size and grit since they rallied to beat the Kings in a seven-game series last spring and have learned to win physically, low- scoring games.
The Kings vowed to stay out of the penalty box, in deference to the Oilers’ record-setting power play, and they didn’t entirely succeed. Bouchard’s five-on-three goal at 12:31 of the first period gave Edmonton a 2-0 lead, less than six minutes after Draisaitl opened the scoring.
The Kings also knew they’d need their young players to draw on the experience they gained in last season’s series, in which they also won Game 1. And they’ll need big-time efforts from goaltender Joonas Korpisalo, who stopped 37 shots and became the first Kings goalie other than Jonathan Quick to start a playoff game since Felix Potvin in Game 7 against Colorado on April 29, 2002.
Although Pheonix Copley saved the Kings’ season going early, general manager Rob Blake traded Quick and a first-round pick for Korpisalo and defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov for just this occasion. “All due respect to Quickie, who was a Hall of Fame player for us, but we feel we’ve improved in that area,” coach Todd McLellan said.
Kopitar described the team’s mood as “cautiously optimistic” a few days ago. They justified that optimism Monday night.
“I think we’re more consistent this year than we were last year, not having so many ups and downs,” Kopitar said Monday morning. “There’s definitely the experience side of it too. There were a bunch of guys that this time last year hadn’t had a playoff game yet. And this time around it’s different.”
Kopitar trailed Fiala for the team scoring lead most of the season before a lower-body injury took Fiala out of the lineup. Fiala hasn’t skated with the team for a while; Vilardi skated Sunday but did not participate in Monday’s game-day skate. McLellan didn’t rule either of them out for later in the series but also wouldn’t say if they’re in Edmonton. “Could be,” he said, embracing hockey’s postseason mantra of supplying as little information about injuries as humanly possible.
This much is for certain: The Kings are in for a tough test in this series. “We know what their strengths are. They know what our strengths are. It will be a good series, I believe,” Kopitar said before the game. “It’s just being smart and being disciplined and just going from there.”
For the Kings, it’s go to the second round or go home. They took a huge step Monday toward the more attractive of those two options.
This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.