Kopitar focuses on game, not contract
Anze Kopitar is on the cover of the Kings’ training camp guide — front and near center for the longtime Kings center.
Imagine the din of the rumor mill if he wasn’t. There was a brief Twitter flutter about the supposed absence of Tampa Bay star Steven Stamkos in a Lightning arena promotion this week. It turned out he was featured on a banner over another tower at the team’s arena.
What Kopitar and Stamkos have in common is they are both in the final year of their respective contracts. At this point, it doesn’t appear an extension is imminent in either case. What is missing from the Kopitar situation is the Toronto factor — Stamkos grew up near there. The atmosphere in El Segundo is mellower, a lot like Kopitar.
When training camp opened Friday, Kopitar skated on a line with a newcomer, left wing Milan Lucic, and a familiar figure, Marian Gaborik. Afterward, Kopitar fielded a few questions about his contract situation. Nothing new is going on in terms of negotiations — his agent, Pat Brisson, has been out of town — but Kopitar didn’t seem concerned.
“You don’t think about it too much,” Kopitar said. “I’ve said it all along, it would be nice if it was done before the season. But if it’s not, it’s really not that big a deal.
“There’s plenty of time left in that regard too. So we’ll see what happens.”
Some players opt to shut down contract talks during the season. Kopitar, who scored 16 goals and had a team-high 62 points in 79 games last season, wasn’t sure whether he would do that.
“Actually, I haven’t thought about that yet,” he said. “I don’t know. [Brisson] tells me everything that’s going on. There’s my input in there. It’s a two-way street.”
Said Kings captain Dustin Brown: “I don’t think it’s going to be a big deal for him. It’s not going to affect his game. To say he’s not going to think about it is unrealistic too. It’s in the back of your head. If you’re in that situation, you’re thinking about it every day. But he has the professionalism, the ability to focus on what he needs to do and understands how important he is to our team.” Nolan takes it slow
One regular, winger Jordan Nolan, hurt his ankle in off-season training but is due to take part in more training activities in a few days. He skated a bit between sessions with other extra players.
Fitness counts
Much talk centered on fitness and revised diets. Brown said this is the best he has felt in seven or eight years, after consulting a nutritionist and eliminating dairy and processed foods. He has food delivered to his house and Brown’s youngsters have been sampling the wares.
“All four of them all like the expensive stuff,” he said, laughing. “The steak and the salmon. They like all the protein. One kid, I could take him to any steakhouse and he’ll get the most expensive steak, not knowing.”
Defenseman Drew Doughty showed up, about 12 pounds lighter, and got the usual ribbing from his teammates.
“All the guys are kind of laughing at me,” Doughty said. “They haven’t see me look like this, or this good anyway. I felt really good out there.”
The staff is intent on managing his minutes this season. Doughty has embraced playing big minutes, averaging 29 minutes per game last season. However, something has to change.
“I’m sure there will be a few games where I get up close to 30,” Doughty said. “Knock on wood, but if there’s injuries or if someone’s not playing well or something like that.
“But for the most part, I think my minutes are going to come down. I’ll probably be in that 24 to 25 area, which I know the team thinks is better for me because I’ll have more energy, shift-by-shift.”
Doughty spoke about the lessons learned from missing the playoffs last season.
“We’ve got to learn we can’t leave it to the last minute, the last few games of the season to try to get in the playoffs,” he said. “We were embarrassed that we didn’t make the playoffs last year.
“We were [hacked] off and I haven’t seen our team come to camp more determined than we are this year. So I’m really looking forward to getting the season started.”