In a couple hours, Anze Kopitar is expected to lose his status as the only Slovenian player in the NHL. The Detroit Red Wings today called up forward Jan Mursak, who is expected to be in the lineup tonight and make his NHL regular-season debut. Mursak, 22, was born five months after Kopitar and was drafted the year after Kopitar, by the Red Wings in the sixth round. Mursak played three seasons of junior hockey and was in his third season with the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins when he got the call. Kopitar was enthusiastic about Mursak’s arrival in the NHL.
KOPITAR: “It’s really nice to see. He’s been waiting for this for a long time, so I’m really happy for him. I’m happy for him personally, obviously, and for Slovenian hockey reasons. Hopefully there are more guys to come. I’ve said it all along. We have some more good young players, and hopefully they can make it, if not to the NHL but to put themselves in a position where they can have a good career and help our national team.”
Slovenia is still very much in the “growing” phase in terms of hockey. It’s a country of just more than 2 million people. Mursak is from the northeast part of Slovenia, while Kopitar is from the northwest — their hometowns are separated by approximately 115 miles — and Slovenia, next year, will participate in the top division of the IIHF World Championships, with a team coached by Kopitar’s father, Matjaz. Kopitar said he hopes he and Mursak are helping to grow hockey in Slovenia.
KOPITAR: “I’m sure we’re both helping. Where I’m from, it’s a big hockey town, a big hockey area. Where he’s from, soccer is a little more popular than hockey. I hope that’s going to spark that region of the country, which is going to help. We need more and more kids to start playing, and hopefully develop, and he’s definitely going to help that, for sure.”
Hate to say it but…Go Detroit…beat Colorado tonight.
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Kingme20 Reply:
December 27th, 2010 at 2:33 pm
@wavesinair,
Not sure who I want to win that game. Kings are only five points behind the Wings, but Colorado would jump over the Kings if they win (and if the Kings don’t find a way to give the Sharks the tail-kicking they richly deserve). The only thing I know is I do not want a 3 point game.
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Dominick Reply:
December 27th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
@Kingme20, Sharks kicked off the losing streak we experienced a little while ago. Yes! a “tail kicking” is in order.
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Very cool story. I bet it sucked for Kopitar to watch the Olympics instead of having a chance to play in them.
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If Slovenia had Kopi on Olimpic qualifications you could watch also Kopi in Vancouver. There is another very good player of Slovenian descent – Matt Stajan from Calgary Flames owns also Slovenian passport. I am not sure for Wade Belak from Nashville Predators.But Belak is for sure slovenian surname.
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mrbrett7 Reply:
December 27th, 2010 at 2:20 pm
@slovenian fan, Interesting…I did not know that about Stajan.
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LF13 Reply:
December 27th, 2010 at 2:49 pm
@slovenian fan, don’t forget Wade Belak (was in NHL from 1996-2009) and there are also others “our” players.
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BobKnob Reply:
March 19th, 2011 at 1:18 pm
@LF13,
He’s still playing.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/players/1300
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Seamless Reply:
December 27th, 2010 at 5:38 pm
@slovenian fan, The Red Wings pregame show has Mursak listed that he is from Czech Republic??
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Im glad to see that Kopi isnt the only one in his country to make it to the big time. It amazes me that guys like Kopitar and Mursak were able to become professional hockey players considering where they are from. Are there even rinks and organized ice hockey in Slovenia?
Anze Kopitar’s little brother, Gaspar, is playing for the Portland Winter-Hawks in juniors now and is gonna be draft eligable either this year or next. I dont know if hes any good but if hes available the Kings should definetely take a chance on Gaspar and maybe draft him in the later rounds. Who knows, maybe he could be the 3rd Slovenian to make it to the NHL.
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Jeff Reply:
December 27th, 2010 at 2:30 pm
@Slovenian Powerhouse, Not only do they have a rink, but they are supposed to get in door plumbing in the next few years.
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grega11 Reply:
December 27th, 2010 at 3:14 pm
@Slovenian Powerhouse,
not only do we have a rink, we have 7 indoor hockey rinks in slovenia. yup, 7
still, we`ll be playing in the top division of the IIHF World Championships
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Rich,
Is their any weird pronounciation to Matjaz, like On-jee for Anze?
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Rich Hammond Reply:
December 27th, 2010 at 2:09 pm
Yes, and I’ve been trying to get it right and I’m still struggling. Maybe one of our Slovenian friends can help…
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matey Reply:
December 27th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
@Rich Hammond, Well. I think it’s like that S in the word meaSure (mežr). that’s how the last letter of his name is pronunced (matjaž). hope that helps…
btw: it’s the same with Anže. nobody in Slovenia would call him On-jee…
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W Reply:
December 27th, 2010 at 5:30 pm
@Rich Hammond,
here are audio clips from random youtube videos, since it’s a bit hard to write the correct pronunciation down in plain English. Hope it helps.
Matjaz.mp3: http://www.mediafire.com/?rpjehn1dqza4fa9
Anze.mp3: http://www.mediafire.com/?m6optpp2i8sek7m
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I am all for anything that grows and expands the game of hockey globally. Bets of luck to Mursak tonight!
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its the slovanina invasion awwwwwwww
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Let’s make Gasper Kopitar the 3rd..
I drafted him in the 4th round in NHL 11 and he’s making good progress.
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Couple of years and Slovenia will have the most players in the NHL;P I’m also really happy for Muršak that he will play his 1st NHL game but I believe it will take him about 2 years to really become one of the regular players of Detroit because they are really strong team. Tonight it’s really a great night and I’m looking forward to it since I found out in the morning that Muršak was called up. I just wait now for a player from Ljubljana to come to the NHL and that Jesenice and Maribor wound be the only 2 cities in Slovenia with NHL players
But even tough Muršak will play for Detroit I still don’t like them:D
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Matjaž is a pretty weird one, too. I’m having trouble even thinking of words that have the same sounds in English, it’s kind of like Matt-ya-zh. ZH same as in ZHerdev or GE in garaGE or massaGE. That would roughly be it.
Will watch Mursak tonight before the Kings game, he’s from my hometown so hopefully he makes me proud.
He is REALLY speedy (up there with Helm on the Wings, and would probably be the fastest skater on the Kings), has a good shot, good on forecheck and plays a sound two-way game, got both PK and PP time in GR. He’s not the biggest guy around but stronger than you would think, and he even fights occasionally.
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Also Slovenia with the exception of two cities isn’t really big on hockey, hopefully Kopitar and now Mursak will inspire more kids to pick up hockey. I wouldn’t really worry about the size of the country, since it has no problems pumping out great players and national teams in both basketball and soccer. I’m quite confident that if hockey ever reached a similar status to basketball in Slovenia (will never be as big as soccer for obvious reasons) the team could eventually reach a similar status to Slovakia or Czech Republic.
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KornyLJ Reply:
December 28th, 2010 at 4:35 am
@nki, Basketball is actually more popular than soccer. And our two best hockey clubs have the highest avarage attendance than any other team in any sport in Slovenia (with the exception of the Olimpija basketball club, which has an attendance of 12k in the Euroleage)
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un Reply:
December 29th, 2010 at 6:03 am
@KornyLJ, Dont know who deleted my post, but here it goes again. Basketball is certainly NOT more popular then football in Slovenia. Football is the most popular sport by far. Second is basketball and then probably skiing. Ice hockey is big only in Jesenice, Ljubljana and the surronding area (maybe it will become big in Maribor in the future). And dont forget that EBEL ice hockey league and Euroleague basketball are all international competitions so dont compare them with the domestic ones (if any team from Slovenia would play in CL or EL they would have sold out stadiums every time). BTW: in 2010 Slovenia national football team had the most avarage attendances on their home matches (even though they played their last frendly on a stadium with only 4k seats).
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And hockey in Slovenia isnt generally popular. Its actually really popular only in a town of Jesenice which has a population of 13.500 and is near the Kopitar’s hometown. In Jesenice there were 10 players of slovenian national team living in the same apartments building! 9 of them playing at the same time when we got to top divison of IIHF. Well there are also players from Ljubljana, but hockey isnt that popular there.
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Matt Stajan is in fact a member f slovenian community in Canada and he said several times he is a slovenian living in canada… It would be great having him in the Olympics… 1st line kopitar-mursak-stajan… not bad for a 2M country…
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nki
I totally agree with you. My personal oppinion is, that Slovenia’s got really bright future in ice hockey. Who knows, maybe Slovenia will reach status of Czech Republic or Slovakia, or MAYBE get even with somee of Scandinavian countries. I’d say its a “dream on” wish, but the hope still exists. One thing i’m sure about is, that Kopitar is on of the best hockey players in Europe and in the world. He’s also one of the strongest hockey players.
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Acctually in Maribor (from where Mursak is from) soccer/football isnt just ‘little more popular’ than hockey but is the only sport that matters (allthough I hope hockey will grow here and Maribor will become the third hockey centre in the country).
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Stajan holds dual citizenship of Canada and Slovenia, but I think he would only be able to play for Slovenia NT if he would play in Slovenia for at least three years, which wont happen offcourse.
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