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Love this team, love you all. LA: 4 SJ: 1

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Really bummed on the loss of Regehr, he was by far the most physical on the team. It's a bummer we've lost guys like Scuderi, Mitchell, and Regehr but hopefully someone new will step up and play well.
 
Faterson said:
Having his priorities straight means playing in the WCs. Sorry. http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=1873755 It's excruciating enough for European hockey fans when some of their best players aren't available for the top annual international hockey event due to the Stanley Cup playoffs, but not being available due to having to rest from previous seasons' playoffs would be perceived as an outrage, and justifiably so, by many European hockey fans.
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Having his (Kopitar) priorities straight is probably going home and spending some quality time with his newborn child. Not playing in the World Championships isn't the end of the world and people shouldn't be mad at the guy if he passes up the invite. I'm sure he will have plenty more opportunities to represent Slovenia on the international level.

In all honestly, I foget exactly when his kid was born, maybe Feb? But he probably hasn't spent much time with his little one. Family comes first, especially now that the NHL season has concluded for the Kings.

If people are outraged by him going home to be with his family, then those so called fans need to seriously consider getting help.

Go home, rest up and change some diapers.
 
KingsHockey24 said:
Really bummed on the loss of Regehr, he was by far the most physical on the team. It's a bummer we've lost guys like Scuderi, Mitchell, and Regehr but hopefully someone new will step up and play well.
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This. The blueline is MUCH weaker without him now. For ****s sake, Matt Greene is our most physical Dman, along with McNabb now. I hope Lombardi addresses this in the off season. **** is looking bleak already...
 
Gerbefied said:
Great season guys. It's an honor to have you guys beat us down. I will dedicate parts of my offseason to defending your team on the main boards so you don't have to go through what we went through last year.
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Kings and Sharks are friends again, offseason golf buddies for a year :laugh:
 
Kopi better not play in the WCs. He was a zombie all season long so he better take this time to rest, not play in a gibberish tournament.
 
Omni Owl said:
This. The blueline is MUCH weaker without him now. For ****s sake, Matt Greene is our most physical Dman, along with McNabb now. I hope Lombardi addresses this in the off season. **** is looking bleak already...
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Yep, for as much debate as there was about bringing him back, that's a huge hole from a character and mean ol SOB standpoint. McNabb isn't quite that ferocious, and though Greene is of the same mold, we're missing that now. That's old school, though, not a lot of guys like that around anymore that can play, the new school is the mobile two-way d-man and many of those guys are smaller/more agile. Would be nice if Forbort was an ******* but either you are or aren't, you can't pretend.
 
DocWest said:
Kopi better not play in the WCs. He was a zombie all season long so he better take this time to rest, not play in a gibberish tournament.
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I agree. He should be getting some rest and spending some time with the family. Wouldn't want him to risk an injury as well...
 
I'd be fine with Kopitar playing in the World Championship, as long as he has plenty of family time as well. It means a lot to him and his countrymen. That's important.

After all, it's only April and the regular season starts in October. :cry: How much golf can a guy play. I'm looking forward to hearing a crowd of Slovenians yell, "Shoot, Kopi, Shoot!"
 
kovacro said:
Having his (Kopitar) priorities straight is probably going home and spending some quality time with his newborn child. Not playing in the World Championships isn't the end of the world
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One can see you're not European. He can play with his newborn baby the whole summer long. A 2-week tournament makes hardly a difference for a human being hardly properly aware of its surroundings at this point. For Slovenia, every participation in the top tier of the World Championships is a success that needs to be fiercely defended every time. It would be absurd for Kopitar to miss the tourney for the reason you gave.
 
Faterson said:
One can see you're not European. He can play with his newborn baby the whole summer long. A 2-week tournament makes hardly a difference for a human being hardly properly aware of its surroundings at this point. For Slovenia, every participation in the top tier of the World Championships is a success that needs to be fiercely defended every time. It would be absurd for Kopitar to miss the tourney for the reason you gave.
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It would be absurd for him to spend time with his family?

It's one thing to talk about the cultural differences that would lead one to play in the tourney, it's another to lecture everyone in this thread that their way of thinking is absurd. Stop. Now.
 
Brad Doty said:
It would be absurd for him to spend time with his family?
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Instead of representing his native country for 2 weeks? Absolutely. There will be 4 more hockey-free spring/summer months to spend with the family. After all, he wouldn't be spending that time with the family if the Kings made the playoffs, so using that excuse now would be sending a message to his countrymen that money means more to him than his native country. It's not lecturing, just explaining the obvious.
 
Reclamation Project said:
No offense, and this will probably come over as very rude, but I don't give two ***** about the IIHF. What happens if our franchise players get injured in some useless tournament? And yes, when you are an NHL player, it's a useless tournament.
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Bandit said:
We pay Kopitar's salary, the IIHF can suck it.
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way to bolster the "UGLY AMERICANS" theme lol and his freaking dad is the coach give the guy a break, it shows major heart to want to represent your country even when its not convenient or on major networks
 
It's a bittersweet feeling knowing we have a good team and still missed the playoffs. Funny how I forgot what it felt like to miss the playoffs (it's been a while). All in all I look forward to the next season and all the heated debates on this forum throughout the summer.
 
Faterson said:
Instead of representing his native country for 2 weeks? Absolutely. There will be 4 more hockey-free spring/summer months to spend with the family. After all, he wouldn't be spending that time with the family if the Kings made the playoffs, so using that excuse now would be sending a message to his countrymen that money means more to him than his native country. It's not lecturing, just explaining the obvious.
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in your opinion.

For the record, I don't truly disagree with you, and I know how much the tourney means especially to European countries, but the guy doesn't owe anyone but himself anything. Suggesting it's absurd for Kopitar to do anything but show up to the WCs is entitlement.

All that being said, I'm sure he'll go, it's HUGE for him. But it's not criminal if he doesn't after all he's been through.
 
yankeeking said:
it shows major heart to want to represent your country even when its not convenient or on major networks
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It's on all the major networks in European hockey countries. The stature of the hockey World Championships here in Slovakia is only comparable to that of the SuperBowl in the US, and the tourney consistently draws record viewer shares for the networks that purchase the broadcast rights. So much for "gibberish, meaningless", etc., tournament.
 
yankeeking said:
way to bolster the "UGLY AMERICANS" theme lol and his freaking dad is the coach give the guy a break, it shows major heart to want to represent your country even when its not convenient or on major networks
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It's got nothing to do with "ugly Americans". My feeling is the same for Quick and Brown. If Kopitar gave a little more of a **** in ONE regular season game we would be talking about playoff matchups right now instead of golfing. But sure, go windsurfing with dear ol' dad.
 
So apparently not wanting a guy that was below career average this season to not play during the ONE long offseason he's had in years makes us ugly Americans? Give me a break. I guarantee Dean would be ugly too.
 
Faterson said:
One can see you're not European. He can play with his newborn baby the whole summer long. A 2-week tournament makes hardly a difference for a human being hardly properly aware of its surroundings at this point. For Slovenia, every participation in the top tier of the World Championships is a success that needs to be fiercely defended every time. It would be absurd for Kopitar to miss the tourney for the reason you gave.
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I am European. You must not be good at identifying the flag under my name.

I very much understand the Worlds are like the Euros version of the Stanley Cup. And it's taken very seriously.

Would you be really upset at him if he didn't play because he potentially would put his family first? In the end, he probably will considering his dad is the coach and I'm sure Anze has tremendous pride in his country.

My guess is he will play unless he is carrying an injury that we don't know about or he really is just burned out and wants to spend time with the wife and newborn.
 
Reclamation Project said:
to not play during the ONE long offseason he's had in years
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Actually, that's an added reason for him to play. Precisely because the NHL prevented him from representing his country in previous recent World Championships, many European fans would find it inexcusable if players who are free to play in the tourney would refuse to do so, for whatever reason apart from health/low performance.

I don't feel as strongly about it myself, and I agree with Brad Doty this creates a sense of "entitlement" on the part of the fans. But that's just what the mindset of most European hockey fans is, and understandably so.
 
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kovacro said:
Would you be really upset at him if he didn't play because he potentially would put his family first?
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I wouldn't myself, but typical hockey fans would, you can bet on that. Maybe not in Croatia (not a hockey country), but definitely in Slovakia, Czech Rep, etc. Top Slovak tennis players often get lots of abuse whenever they refuse to play in a truly second-rate Davis Cup or Fed Cup matchup, and it's a lot worse with hockey.
 
KingPuckChoo said:
wow everything else being equal, the season series with CGY was the deciding factor

i still can't wrap my fingers around that fact
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Ya. There's lots of ways to look at it, but that's definitely one legit one. Hell, if they did even a little better in shootouts, like won 25% of them, they'd be in the playoffs. Sutter may not like the SO but it's part of the game and you have to address it and maybe prepare for it a little more.

I'm just glad we would've needed more than 2 points to pass Calgary or Winnipeg cuz that one terrible waived off goal against Ottawa not only would've cost us at least a point, if not 2, but it would've been enough of a difference between making the playoffs and missing. So at least it's nice to know it was a non-factor in the long run.
 
yankeeking said:
way to bolster the "UGLY AMERICANS" theme lol and his freaking dad is the coach give the guy a break, it shows major heart to want to represent your country even when its not convenient or on major networks
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You're right, but if it's going to wear down his NHL play to any significant amount he should consider that when salary talks come around. Kopitar is the team's offensive leader and he had a poor showing this season.
 
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