Anze Kopitars final season doesnt start well as

For Kings’ captain Anze Kopitar, Tuesday’s NHL season-opener was the start of the end while for Ken Holland, the staff’s first-year normal supervisor, it was the end of the start.

For both it was also a evening to neglect, with the Colorado Avalanche skating through, over and around the Kings in a dominant 4-1 victory constructed on second-period targets from Martin Necas, Sam Malinski, Artturi Lehkonen and a second Necas rating halfway through the third.

Kevin Fiala received the Kings only rating on the staff’s third energy play of the final period, though the objective, coming with less than 5 minutes to play, was little more than a murmur of protest. Kopitar picked up his 839^th profession help on the play, padding his franchise report and extending his level streak on opening day to eight video games.

“That’s a pretty good team,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said afterward. “They did a good job. They out-checked us, they caught us, they disrupted plays, they didn’t let us forecheck.

“That was not a good game for us. I don’t want to take away from how well Colorado played. [But] we need to play better than we did.”

Kopitar, the Kings’ all-time chief in a number of other classes including video games, announced last month that this season, his 20^th in the NHL, could be his last. And while those numbers will finally take him to the Hall of Fame, first there will likely be a farewell tour around the league, one that received off to an uneven start with the sellout crowd at Crypto.com Arena saluting him with a standing ovation pregame. Kopitar wasn’t a lot of a issue after that, however, taking just one shot in 18 minutes.

Meanwhile for Holland, employed last May to get the Kings past the opening spherical of the playoffs for the first time since 2014, the sport marked the end of his summer time restructuring with his new staff. And the first impression of what he constructed wasn’t a good one, with the Kings shedding their opener for the third time in 4 seasons.

Both groups performed cautiously in a first period that ended with the Kings skating shorthanded after Colorado’s Josh Manson took down Warren Foegele with an elbow, a hit Jeff Malott acknowledged by chasing Manson down the ice and dropping the gloves. Both gamers drew five-minute combating penalties but Malott was also given two minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct.

“I like the response to the hit on Foegele,” Hiller said. “We thought it was a high hit so Malott went in. We’ve got no problems with that. I thought that was really important moment for him and for our team; that we’re not going to take that.”

The Kings killed the penalty — the first of 12 on the evening for both groups — but seconds after the 2 sides had been back at full strength Necas gave the Avalanche the lead for good with a wrister from the suitable circle.

Malinski, a defenseman, doubled the benefit less than seven minutes later, blasting a shot from just inside the blue line through site visitors and by goalie Darcy Kuemper. Lehkonen gave Colorado its third objective of the second period on a rebound with 5:18 left.

“Second period wasn’t good enough,” defenseman Drew Doughty said. “We were on our heels, we were turning the puck over too much. They were getting a lot of speed up turnovers, 3 on 2s and stuff. And that hurt us.

“Definitely not even close to good enough.”

Necas then made it 4-0 on a power-play objective midway through the final period. Fiala matched that with the Kings’ first objective of the yr less than 5 minutes later.

The Kings not often challenged Colorado goalie Scott Wedgewood in the first two durations, enjoying tentatively and creating little offense, placing just 9 photographs on objective through the first 36 minutes. Helped by 4 Colorado penalties the Kings got here alive in a chippy third period, placing 14 photographs on objective.

“Good response in the third,” Doughty said. “But too little, too late.”