Episode 3: "Immortals"
Players featured: Sidney Crosby, Anze Kopitar and Quinton Byfield
Episode synopsis: Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby and Los Angeles Kings captain Anze Kopitar are still two of the top players in the NHL despite nearing the end of their careers. Their goal remains the same: to win one last Stanley Cup. Kings forward Quinton Byfield learns from Kopitar as he prepares to take the next step in his young career.
Funniest moment: In March, Crosby scores against former teammate Marc-Andre Fleury one final time. After the game, the two meet up and discuss the goal. Crosby tells Fleury he could hear him chirping during the game. Fleury still couldn’t believe he let the goal in. Evgeni Malkin then joins them and apologizes to Fleury for also scoring on him.
“Never give me a discount,” Malkin said.
Family time: On an off day, Kopitar and his wife take their kids to the rink to watch their daughter figure skate and son play hockey. The Kings captain shares a memory about watching his in a competition for the first time last year.
“That was my first time watching her [his daughter] live. My heart was pounding probably more than any Game 7s and any Stanley Cup Finals games that I’ve played,” Kopitar said. “For me, compete, perform, play games, that’s an everyday job to me. But then watching your kids play, it’s a completely different story and a lot more nerve-wracking.”
Byfield enjoys a homemade breakfast with his mother, grandmother and sister at his home. His mom shares a story about how the young forward took off his first time on the ice as a kid. His grandma then gives him words of encouragement.
“Just keep up the good work, so I can phone your mother every time you score,” Byfield’s grandma said.
Quotable: “When you’ve played this long, winning is what continues to push you. At this point in my career, seeing guys you played with move on, not playing anymore. Seeing guys that you played against, now all of a sudden you are playing against their sons, that’s part of the game, that’s how it works,” Crosby on what keeps him motivated.
This is Hockey Life: The Kings start out win a 2-0 lead against the Edmonton Oilers in the first round of the playoffs but lose in overtime in Game 4 to allow the Oilers to even the series. Byfield takes responsibility for not clearing the puck with under a minute left in the third period of Game 4, which led to the Oilers tying the game and sending it to overtime.
“It was a little thing that turned into a massive thing,” Byfield reflects.
Kopitar has a different take on the play, saying the team needed to play better as a whole and that’s the bottom line. The night before Game 6 in Edmonton, the Kings have a team dinner to regroup and watch the other playoff games on that night.
“I’ve been doing this for quite a while, it’s probably new for some of the young guys coming in here. But I think at this point, it’s just a way of life, really,” Kopitar said. “You know what you need to do to in order to get ready for the games because that’s the ultimate goal is trying to win games.”
Hockey players, they are just not like us: In Halifax, Crosby trains for another NHL season in his home gym. On the wall, there are pictures of the captains from every Stanley Cup championship team since he entered the league. One blank picture frame hangs above the most recent winner, Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov.
“I always put the winning captain… When we [the Penguins] lost in ’08, I just wanted that as a reminder. I started doing that, kept putting them up, leave the empty one there, hoping that it is ours,” Crosby explained.
