Selflessness drives Kopitar, Kings' key players

Darryl Sutter, via LA Kings Insider, on whether or not there is anything innate in Anze Kopitar’s play that all great players have:

"Well, one thing about this group, because they’ve had it now, and he’s a central figure in it, they don’t put anything to do with themselves first. It’s like last week when we moved Mike around, we moved Jeff around and all that, everyone thinks it’s some sort of a controversial thing or a problem with Brownie, it’s like probably in the locker room. It’s actually the opposite. These guys aren’t about the individual stuff. They’re actually the opposite. They’re trying to help the team in different ways, and that’s what they want to do. It’s the best part, still, with those guys.

"We’ve talked about that type of player, because you can go to them and talk about it…’What do you think seems best?’ I mean, Kopi and Jeff aren’t playing together…And same with Mike. Mike and Jeff aren’t playing together, but they know that it’s probably better for us to shift it around.

"Kopi’s awesome like that. I said it right away when I was on the ice with Kopi. I didn’t know enough, either. Just…watching him as a young guy from upstairs. But once you get him, and you get him in the practice stuff, in the meeting stuff and all that, those guys are special guys because they play the game, they’re different. They see it different. They’re special…

"It’s like talking about the Selke, I said it the first game. Friggin, he was the best that I’ve coached in that. You know there’s the great checking guys, but not somebody that was so good at everything."

Source: Jon Rosen, LA Kings Insider