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Anze Kopitar put the Los Angeles Kings on his back in the team's season-opening win over the Buffalo Sabres, scoring a natural hat trick in a 3-1 victory at the Keybank Center on Thursday night. The captain also made some impressive NHL history in the process.
“Anze Kopitar scored his second season-opening hat trick in four years and became just the seventh player in NHL history to net a natural hat trick in his club’s first contest,” wrote NHL Public Relations on Friday morning.
Trailing 1-0 heading into the third period, Kopitar broke through just 13 seconds into the final frame before scoring twice more in the stanza to complete the hat trick. It was the seventh hat trick of the Slovenian's career, which passed both Wayne Gretzky and Dustin Brown for the sixth most in Kings franchise history.
As well, Kopitar became the fifth player in history to record a hat trick in two season-opening tilts, joining Auston Matthews, Connor McDavid, Brendan Shanahan and Cam Neely, per NHL Public Relations.
Kopitar always seems to show up in game No. 1 of a new season; he's now amassed a seriously impressive 12 goals and 26 points over 18 career season openers. Only legends Gretzky, Jaromir Jagr, Ray Bourque and Joe Sakic have more.
And although the 37-year-old will be content with his production, he's probably just happy to help his team get the come-from-behind win on Thursday night.
Anze Kopitar, Kings off to an encouraging start in 2024-25
“I don't think the team got frustrated at all, really,” Kopitar said about the Kings trailing 1-0 heading into the third, per NHL.com's Heather Engel. “I mean, even though our game was not nearly as sharp as we want it to be, we were down one goal going into the third period on the road. And they've played a couple of games already.
“This is our first so-called real game. You're just trying to find something, really, and it's one shot that can change the momentum of the game. And luckily we found it in third.”
After scoring early in the final frame, Kopitar gave Los Angeles the lead with just 1:38 remaining before depositing an empty netter in the final seconds.
Darcy Kuemper was another bright spot for the Kings, making 32 saves on 33 shots in his first game between the pipes for LA after being traded from the Washington Capitals on June 19.
But the netminder gave all the credit to the captain afterwards.
“He's the guy that we all look up to,” Kuemper said, per Engel. “He's played in so many big games, and that's just leadership. Things maybe aren't going the way we want them to and he just goes out there and gets one right away, gets us back in it. Then to get the game-winner, and then to seal it with the hat trick, that's pretty special. He's just an incredible player.”
Now 1-0, the Kings will look to keep the good times rolling against the Boston Bruins at TD Garden in Massachusetts on Saturday afternoon. Puck drops just past 1:00 p.m. ET.
