Anze Kopitar, the pride of Slovenia and an all-time Los Angeles King, has taken his final NHL twirl.
Though there was precious little Kopitar could do to prevent a sweep at the hands of the Colorado Avalanche — the Avs finished the job with a 5-1 win on Sunday evening in L.A. to win their first-round series 4-0 — at times it felt like the six-foot-three, two-way stud was built in a hockey lab to be the perfect No. 1 centre for this time of year.
We’re now 12 years removed from the time Kopitar and the Kings ruled the NHL, winning their second Cup in three years in 2014. Those teams were a smothering, bruising wagon and Kopitar’s biggest moment ever may have come in his very first Stanley Cup Final game, when he scored the Game 1 overtime winner on the road for the Kings against the New Jersey Devils. Three victories later, L.A. had its first hockey title ever and Kopitar tied Dustin Brown for the playoff scoring lead with 20 points.
Two years later, when the Kings won again, Kopitar led the field with 26 post-season points.
With two rings, two Selke Trophies, three Lady Byng Trophies and a high-profile rivalry between his team and the Chicago Blackhawks, Kopitar is a signature player of the 21st century.
He now departs an L.A. squad that has fallen in Round 1 in five straight years and hasn’t seen Round 2 since that 2014 championship.
Maybe that will change next year, with a full season of Artemi Panarin and Kevin Fiala — injured at the Olympics — back in the mix.
But one thing is for sure; hockey won’t feel the same in Hollywood without the Slovenian trailblazer who’s hanging ’em up after 20 years.
They say the fourth win of a series is the hardest to get, so no wonder the Avs needed their stars to step up in Game 4 to make it happen.
For the second straight game, Cale Makar padded his “Best Defenceman in the World” case with a beautiful blue-line dance that resulted in a goal, while Nathan MacKinnon — with his first tally of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs — opened the scoring, then sealed the deal with an empty-netter late in the proceedings.
MacKinnon’s first goal was a power-play strike, marking the first time Colorado has converted with the man advantage in the playoffs. Somewhat shockingly given the talent the Avs possess, Colorado’s power play struggled this year — finishing 27th in the NHL — and it would be a huge development if the team could pick it up in that department.
We’ve long known getting out of the Central Division was going to be a tough task for the three teams at the top. Now, having dusted L.A. in four games, Colorado can get precious rest while hoping second-place Dallas and third-place Minnesota — currently knotted 2-2 and playing a lot of extra hockey — continue to pound the tar out of each other.
Quietly, this first round was also an endorsement for Scott Wedgwood as a playoff starter. The first three games were very close and the final contest was a one-goal game heading into the third. Wedgewood, entering the post-season as the No. 1 man for the first time in his career, finished the series with a sparkling .950 save percentage.
Watch out, hockey world; the Buffalo Sabres are starting to roll again.
Few teams entered the spring dance with more momentum than the Sabres, who were one of the best teams in the league during the second half of the year and had the added thrust created by exploding a 14-season playoff drought.
Now, after starting out the series with some uneven play during two home games, the Sabres leave Boston with an absolute stranglehold on the Bruins after throttling them 6-1 in Game 4.
Buffalo looked good in Game 3, then took it to a whole other level while blasting their way to a 3-1 series lead on Sunday afternoon in Boston.
A number of Sabres are hitting their stride, none more so than defenceman Bowen Byram. After finding the net in Games 2 and 3, Byram again hit paydirt by scoring Buffalo’s fourth goal of the first period.
The Sabres’ top four is a huge part of what makes their attack so dangerous and that’s carried over to the playoffs. We saw it in Game 1, when Mattias Samuelsson jumped up to snipe the go-ahead goal late in the third period, and now Byram has found the range in three straight outings to tie Minnesota’s Brock Faber for the most goals (three) in the playoffs by a D-man. Then there’s Byram’s partner, Owen Power, who has four assists through his first four career post-season contests.
Buffalo is at its best when everyone is on their toes, pushing forward and coming at opponents in waves. After a bit of a feeling-out process, it sure seems like the Sabres are playing to their identity.
The drought continues…sort of
The one thing Buffalo did not accomplish in Game 4 is snap an 0-for-April drought on the power play. Technically the Sabres have failed to convert on their past 39 chances after going 0-for-3 on Sunday. However, Josh Doan’s first period marker — which made it 2-0 — came just two seconds after the Bruins had finished killing a too-many-men penalty and ostensibly served as a man-advantage goal.
Doan had a great opening frame, netting a goal and an assist, all shortly after he was rattled by a neutral-zone collision with Bruins defenceman Charlie McAvoy.
The first-year Sabres winger picked himself up, spent a couple painful moments on the bench, then came back and not only got his goal, but made a great effort to create a turnover on the tally by Zach Benson that made it 3-0.
It goes without saying Alex Lyon — starting his second straight game — was also a positive presence for the Sabres, coming within 40 seconds of a shutout.
Now, Doan, Lyon and everybody else in blue and yellow can close out the Bruins on Tuesday night in Buffalo as they try to pin down the Sabres’ first playoff series win in 19 years.
It’s hard to fathom a team playing a worse opening period of hockey than the Bruins turned in on Sunday. That’s especially true when you consider the B’s were on home ice, playing a game they had to have to avoid falling behind 3-1 in the series.
Boston looked downright clueless while falling behind 3-0 before the game was 10 minutes old. In order, Fraser Minten, Hampus Lindholm and Jordan Harris all made egregious turnovers that led directly to the first three Buffalo goals. Even a mid-period timeout by coach Marco Sturm did nothing to stem the tide, as the Bruins gave up one more goal before entering the dressing room down 4-0.
Buffalo had 34 first-period attempts on net compared to just 13 for Boston, and the Sabres outshot the pathetic home side 19-5 in the opening stanza.
When Alex Tuch scored Buffalo’s sixth and final goal of the game, it represented a string of nine unanswered goals by the Sabres in the series.
In two home-ice games, the only two Bruins to find the net were fourth-liners Tanner Jeannot and Sean Kuraly.
No wonder goalie Jeremy Swayman verbally blasted his own bench as he skated off the ice following a mercy pull in the third.
Let’s see if any Bruins — specially the guys who are supposed to drive the offence — got the message.