Thursday night will give Detroit Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan a chance to catch up with Kings captain Anze Kopitar, whom he coached for several seasons and who is set to retire after this season.
Having arrived on the West Coast, the Detroit Red Wings are continuing their five-game road trip beginning with a tilt against the Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com Arena (10:30 p.m. ET.)
Thursday evening’s matchup against the Kings comes on the heels of their 5-2 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday evening at Enterprise Center.
Thanks to the late starting time for locals in the Eastern Time zone, it will bring back memories of the numerous late night regular season and playoff matchups the Red Wings had against teams like the Kings, San Jose Sharks, and Anaheim Ducks prior to their 2013 move back to the Eastern Conference.
Several current members of the Red Wings will be making a return to the venue they once called home, most notably head coach Todd McLellan, who coached the Kings from 2019 until his dismissal in early 2024.
Prior to this season’s beginning, Kings team captain Anze Kopitar announced that this would be his final campaign in the NHL. McLellan, who coached Kopitar during his time in Los Angeles, continues to speak very highly of him and plans on meeting with him face to face if circumstances allow.
“I will seek him out, “McLellan said when asked if he had plans to try and catch up with the two-time Stanley Cup winner. “That’s how much I think of him. He has been and still is an incredible player and understands the game so much from both sides of the puck, understands game management.”
Kopitar was one of the key components of the two Stanley Cup championships the Kings captured in 2012 and 2014, and he is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in franchise history. Not only is he approaching the 1,500 career games played mark, but he also has the opportunity to become just the third player in NHL history to reach that milestone while having already surpassed 400 goals and 800 assists.
The only two players in NHL history to have accomplished that feat? None other than Steve Yzerman and the late Alex Delvecchio, two of the top players in Red Wings history who are members of the Hockey Hall of Fame, and players whose jersey numbers hang from the rafters at Little Caesars Arena.
“Zero surprise that he’s won Stanley Cups, zero surprise that he’s won individual trophies, a lot of them from the checking perspective and yet he can provide the offense, and zero surprise that he’s a captain of a team,” McLellan said.
“I think very highly of him, very highly.”
However, McLellan shied away from placing that label on any of his current players until they’ve earned it, though he acknowledged that several members of the roster have the potential to eventually reach the level of recognition that Kopitar has achieved.
“As far as our own players, I don’t want to put that or label any of our guys, they’re their own people,” he said. “It would be great to have one or two Anze Kopitars on our team, perhaps we have them or maybe they’ll evolve, but I’m not going to put any names there.”
