Anze Kopitar's 20-year career comes to an end in Kings' loss - ESPN

After years of telling himself there would be a next year, it wasn't until the last six minutes of his final game that Anze Kopitar realized there wasn't going to be a next year.

Kopitar's 20-year career came to an end Sunday with the Los Angeles Kings losing 5-1 to the Colorado Avalanche in Game 4 of the Western Conference quarterfinals.

The Avalanche will advance to the second round where they'll face either the Dallas Stars or the Minnesota Wild.

As for the Kings, they have failed to advance beyond the first round since they won their second Stanley Cup in 2014. They'll be left to rue what went wrong after another first-round exit ahead of an offseason that won't include Kopitar on their roster for the first time since he debuted in the 2006-07 season.

«It's hard to comprehend,» said Kopitar, 38, surrounded by his two children. «But at the same time, these are the two reasons I'm really going to enjoy next year, too. It's very bittersweet for sure. There's going to be some tears. But that's the way life goes, right? It's a circle. It's been one hell of a ride for 20 years.»

Kopitar's final game began with Nathan MacKinnon grabbing a first-period goal and Cale Makar scoring in the second period to stake the Avs to a 2-0 lead. Joel Edmundson scored the Kings' lone goal midway through the second period before the Avs scored three unanswered goals in the third for a 5-1 lead with 5:38 remaining.

Although the result was no longer in question, much of the crowd stayed to watch Kopitar's final shifts. He took the ice with less than three minutes left before the fans started chanting «Kopi! Kopi! Kopi!» for the entirety of what would be his second-to-last shift.

Another chant came with 90 seconds left as fans repeatedly