News Article: Slovenia's Kopitar a Superstar Against All Odds (Good Video)

deeshamrock

Registered User
Jul 25, 2011
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Philadelphia, PA
This is a really good 5 minute video about Kopitar and how his path to the NHL started back in Slovenia. Some great footage of the town and him from the time he was a pee wee playing thru the Cup.

Funny Footage of his grandmother with a copybook when he was about 10 and wrote that he would play in NHL one day. S he crossed out that sentence and told him he wouldn't , that he wasn't good enough

Moving to Sweden at 16 was one of the hardest days of his life but it had to be done if he was to reach his goal of being and NHL player. Shows just how hard he worked at it, and if he'd not made that move, he'd not have had the chance.

Just a really good video about him. Nice ending with him working with kids playing hockey now in his home town and what a great example he's setting for them.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/slovenias-kopitar-a-superstar-against-all-odds/
 
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Kingspiracy

Registered User
Nov 13, 2006
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Nice wee clip. Amazing that he made it so far. Follow your dreams kids.

Some beautiful countryside in his homeland.
 

MsMeow

Registered User
Nov 4, 2005
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I was so happy to see bits and pieces of Slovenia when they showed this on HNiC last night, it is such a gorgeous country.
 

kingsboy11

Maestro
Dec 14, 2011
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USA
Seeing those clips of him at Lake Bled makes me want to go back so badly. Slovenia really is a wonderful country.
 

Vamos Rafa

Registered User
Jan 11, 2010
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Armenia, California
I've always wondered why it took so long for Slovenia to produce an NHL player. I'll just have to remember:

Yugoslavia = basketball
Czechoslovakia = hockey
 

AnThGrt

Registered User
Feb 13, 2005
4,169
418
Park City, UT
I've always wondered why it took so long for Slovenia to produce an NHL player. I'll just have to remember:

Yugoslavia = basketball
Czechoslovakia = hockey
Smaller sport, but Yugoslavia is top 3 nation in the world for water polo. Usually between them, Hungary, and Croatia for who wins. Craziest thing is the entire team during quarter intermissions all smoke like chimneys and then jump back into the pool.
 

JureEe

Go Kings Go!
Apr 5, 2012
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Smaller sport, but Yugoslavia is top 3 nation in the world for water polo. Usually between them, Hungary, and Croatia for who wins. Craziest thing is the entire team during quarter intermissions all smoke like chimneys and then jump back into the pool.

you forgot italy, but Slovenia aint good here.. Serbia or montenegro? who did you mean by Yugoslavia? idk about water polo except slovenia is bad
 

AnThGrt

Registered User
Feb 13, 2005
4,169
418
Park City, UT
you forgot italy, but Slovenia aint good here.. Serbia or montenegro? who did you mean by Yugoslavia? idk about water polo except slovenia is bad
I wrote Yugoslavia and was in reference to Vamos Rafa's post. Have never played against or heard of Slovenia in terms of water polo so not sure. I got as far as the junior national team and they used to hold the world championships at the high school I went to. Serbia Montenegro are also amazing, as well as Italy. I just always feared Yugoslavia and Hungary a lot more as not only are they amazing, but they are huge and most of all dirty as hell.

I think every country has at least one sport they excel in. I always find it fascinating though when you see small nations at the Olympics that seem to dominate in everything and end up in the top 5 with 1/10th not even the population of USA, China, Russia, etc.
 

Nizar

Registered User
Mar 4, 2013
550
16
His dad is the coach of the national team. 'Against all odds' sounds like a stretch.

Kopitar senior coached our national team from december 2010 to june 2015. So maybe Anze helped his father to get the head coach position.
 

Nizar

Registered User
Mar 4, 2013
550
16
Yugoslavia as a whole was known for basketball and football (soccer). Slovenia had some good players in those sports as well (Ivo Daneu, Branko Oblak), although the most popular sport at that time was alpine skiing. Hockey was quite popular as well.
 

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