Kopitars family serving a lot for the promotion of ice hockey in their native country Slovenia
When his son, Anze Kopitar left the native country Slovenia 10 years back to play in the Swedish Junior Hockey League, Matjas Kopitar was not very happy with son’s decision as he wanted him to stay in his own country. But then, he did not that that decision
would lead his son to win Stanley Cup.
Last year’s Stanley Cup winning team’s member Anze Kopitar was born to a Yugoslavian and Slovenian international player Matjas Kopitar in August 1987. His father played many years for his country and wanted his son to serve and do the same in future.
Anze played a key role in Los Angeles Kings’ Stanley Cup win also helped his native country to get promoted in International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) but at that time when he shifted from Slovenia, his father was very disappointed with his son.
The father told the reason of his disappointment was that he was very young at that time and he did not want both of his sons to get separated as both of them were very close. The Slovenian national hockey team’s current coach and former Slovenian/Austrian
player, Matjas said,
"That was the worst time in my life. He was still a kid, he was 16. It was really tough for the whole family. Especially for his brother, they were really connected."
But now he is very proud that such a small country like Slovenia which has got very less population compared to other ice hockey nations like USA, Canada, Russia etc, now would be now competing with Ice Hockey giants. Slovenia has got less than 1000 registered
ice hockey players and now their real test would be to stay in top division of IIHF.
Talking to NHL.com, Kopitar told that their plan is to survive at first and it is a miracle that they have reached there, which makes them very happy as he said,
"Our goal right now is to stay in this highest level. I think we have some guys who can play there. We have maybe 35 guys who can play for the national team. Everyone is important. We are like a miracle, with what we're doing and how we're doing it."
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