Anze Kopitar's NHL career ends as the Los Angeles Kings lose 5-1 to the Colorado Avalanche in the playoffs. This marks the Kings' seventh first-round exit in 12 seasons.
Key points
Anze Kopitar's career ends with a playoff loss
Kings lost 5-1 to the Avalanche
Kings have seven first-round exits in 12 seasons
Avalanche scored five goals in the game
Kopitar was the Kings' captain
Los Angeles KingsColorado Avalanche
LOS ANGELES, CA - APRIL 26: Los Angeles Kings center Anze Kopitar (11) moves.
Kings captain Anze Kopitar controls the puck in front of Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar during the Kings' 5-1 season-ending playoff loss at Crypto.com Arena on Sunday. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Seven times in the past 12 seasons the Kings have advanced to the Stanley Cup playoffs, only to leave after the first round.
Theyāve changed coaches five times, general managers twice, even the team captains have changed over that span. But the results have not.
The latest flameout came Sunday when the Colorado Avalanche rode two goals from Nathan MacKinnon and goals from Cale Makar, Nicolas Roy and Devon Toews to a 5-1 win and a four-game sweep of the best-of-seven series.
The Kings will begin the offseason for the first time in two decades without Anze Kopitar, who played the final game of his Hall of Fame career Sunday.
Fans at Crypto.com Arena chanted "Thank you, Kopi!" in the final minute of the game, giving him a standing ovation. Kopitar received another standing ovation after the team handshakes, acknowledging the cheers from the crowd.
If anything, the Kings are heading backward because they won at least one game in their last five playoffs appearances. Against the Avalanche they not only failed to win, they led just once, for three minutes and 24 seconds late in Game 2.
Colorado, the best team in the NHL during the regular season, was clearly the best team in this series as well, going ahead to stay Sunday on MacKinnonās power-play goal with less than seven minutes left in the first period. That spoiled what had been the Kingsā special-teams advantage in the series.
The Kings, who had a power-play goal in each of the first three games of the series, were shut out with the man advantage twice in the first 12 minutes of Game 4. Then their penalty kill was beaten for the first time in 10 tries when MacKinnon lined home a slap shot in from the center of the left circle 16 seconds after Kings defenseman Brian Dumoulin was sent off for interference.
For MacKinnon, who led the NHL with 53 goals during the regular season, the score was his first of the postseason.
Kings center Anze Kopitar warms up before Game 4 against the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday at Crypto.com Arena.
Kings center Anze Kopitar warms up before Game 4 against the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday at Crypto.com Arena. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
And those werenāt the only penalties in the opening 20 minutes. Just more than two minutes before the first intermission, the physical nature of the series boiled over in a series of scuffles that ended with referee Graham Skilliter meeting with the captains of both teams.
Skilliter then handed out four penalties, a two-minute misconduct to Coloradoās Jack Drury while the Kingsā Samuel Helenius received a two-minute roughing and a 10-minute misconduct and teammate Jeff Malott got a two-minute roughing.
And with that, D.J. Smithās game plan went out the window.
āWe have to be disciplined,ā the Kings interim coach had said before the game. āTwo [penalties] or less.ā
The Kings doubled that total in the first 18 minutes.
Kings defenseman Mikey Anderson, left, battles Colorado Avalanche left wing Gabriel Landeskog.
Kings defenseman Mikey Anderson, left, battles Colorado forward Gabriel Landeskog for the puck in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series Sunday at Crypto.com Arena. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Speaking of doubling, Makar gave Colorado a 2-0 lead 5:48 into the second period, collecting a bouncing puck at the blue line, then skating around Kingsā forward Taylor Ward to score on a wrist shot from the edge of the right circle.
But the Kings, less than 35 minutes away from the end of their season, refused to quit with Edmundson cutting the deficit in half about eight minutes later, sending a wrister from the top of the left circle on goal. Colorado goalie Scott Wedgewood appeared to stop the puck, only to have it fall to the ice and trickle across the goal line.
Roy got that one back for Colorado 3:13 into the final period, banging the rebound of an Artturi Lehkonen shot between the pads of Kings goalie Anton Forsberg. When Toews scored less than three minutes later, the Avalanche had the biggest lead of the series and the rout was on.
MacKinnon added the final score into an empty net.
And with that another disappointing postseason ended for the Kings and another long offseason began, one the team and general manager Ken Holland will enter with more questions than answers, beginning with the status of his interim coach and the aging core of his roster.
Kings captain Anze Kopitar raises the Stanley Cup as he floats across Lake Bled in Slovenia with family and friends in 2012.
Kings captain Anze Kopitar raises the Stanley Cup as he floats across Lake Bled in Slovenia with family and friends in 2012. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
