Anze Kopitar on playing in Slovenia's Olympic qualifiers, Kings captaincy

Slovenia’s hockey bandwagon picked up a ton of passengers during the 2014 Sochi Olympics with their play while in a group with the United States and Russia.

The star of that team was Los Angeles Kings forward Anze Kopitar, who is hoping to guide his country back to the Olympics in 2018.

With nine teams having already qualified for the PyeongChang Games, the final three spots will be filled during games in Belarus, Latvia and Norway when final qualification takes place next month. Kopitar and Slovenia will be in Minsk to face off against Poland, Denmark and Belarus, with the winner of the group heading to Korea in two years.

We still don’t know if NHL players will be participating in PyeongChang, but along with Kopitar, several like Kristers Gudļevskis and Zemgus Girgensons (Latvia), and

Frans Nielsen, Frederik Andersen, Mikkel Boedker and Jannik Hansen (Denmark) will help their respective countries attempt to qualify in early September.

Kopitar will head home to Slovenia next week for training camp before arriving in Belarus a few days ahead of their Sept. 1 opener against Poland. The tournament will prep him for the World Cup of Hockey beginning on Sept. 17 when he plays for Team Europe.

Once it was clear Slovenia would have this opportunity to qualify for another Olympics, Kopitar made it clear to the Kings that he wanted to play.

“Yeah, we didn’t really have any disagreements or anything like that,” Kopitar told Puck Daddy on Friday. “Obviously, I approached the team and let them know. I actually did that quite early. I expressed my desire to play. I’m pretty sure right now they know that I’m very happy to represent our colors. They were very understanding and didn’t really have any arguments towards it so it was very easy.”

Months after the excitement of the Sochi Games, Kopitar won his second Stanley Cup, which meant another trip to Slovenia for the trophy and another opportunity to celebrate the game in his home country.

“Yeah, that summer was pretty exciting,” he said. “It was a lot of attention going toward hockey that summer. It was very nice to see.”

The excitement of 2014 could be rekindled in Slovenia should Kopitar and his teammates manage to qualify for 2018. The Sochi appearance certainly made an impact back home.

“I definitely think we did try to put Slovenia on the map a little bit and everybody will pay a little closer attention to us in the future,” he said. “I think it was a great experience and I also think something for the kids back home to look up to and thinking that dreams can come true and try to follow them as best you can.”

Kopitar wore the ‘A’ for Slovenia in Sochi, and will now don the ‘C’ for the Kings beginning this season, taking over for Dustin Brown. While some might view the change as awkward in the room, Kopitar doesn’t see it like that.

“Yes, I guess the roles are flopped now, and as I said before, let’s definitely not forget that he was the captain that took us to two Stanley Cups,” he said. “He’s going to be my guy that I lean on when I do have a question because he has been there before. I don’t think anything’s going to change between us.”

While there will be a different letter on Kopitar’s sweater and new responsibilities that come with it, if you look at the Kings’ roster there’s plenty of experience there and plenty of Cup rings. The emphasis of what letter is on whose jersey is sometimes a bit overblown in Kopitar’s eyes.

“I think sometimes it is blown up way too much. If you look at our Cup runs I could point out at least five guys that could wear the ‘C’ just as easily as Dustin did,” he said. “Not taking anything away from Dustin, but just sometimes the hype around it, sometimes if you guys don’t have anything to write about you guys pick the spots like that. The team does not consist of one guy. We realize that we have a strong group, a strong core. Right now we’ve got four guys, I think, that could easily be captains too.

“I’ll be wearing the letter ‘C’ on the jersey but we know within the locker room that it’s not just about the ‘C’, it’s about the leaders throughout the team.”

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Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Sean_Leahy