Anze Kopitar was announced as the NHL's First Star of the Week. It's now the second time a King has been tabbed with cracking the Top Three. (Goaltender Jonny (Don't Call Me Jonathan) Quick nabbed the second star back in Week 1.)

    The NHL's only native of Slovenia begins the week as the League's top scorer after a 6-goal, 9-point week that helped the Kings sweep their four games. He had a goal in L.A.'s 4-1 win at Dallas, his first NHL hat trick in a 5-4 overtime win over the Stars at home, three assists in Saturday's 5-3 win at Phoenix and two more goals Sunday night in a 6-3 home victory over Columbus.

And with the high rankings comes the accolades:

• NHL.com:  Kopitar's NHL's stardom years in the making

    Kopitar's imaginative instincts and prophetic insight are just a few qualities that have provided him the opportunity no other Slovenian hockey player ever received at the time -- a chance to play in the NHL.

• NHL.com: Getting Kings into playoffs is Kopitar's top priority

    "Everybody's saying that this is our breakthrough year and I think my goal is to just help make the team get better," Kopitar said. "I just want to make everybody around me better and try to be one of the leaders on the team. I obviously want to help bring the team to the playoffs -- that's a goal of ours this year and hopefully we can make it. It's a long season but we've started off pretty good."

• ESPN: Monday 10: Searing hot scorer, GK and rook

The club's No. 1 center has found a nice chemistry with veteran wingers Justin Williams and Ryan Smyth. With the trio creating problems for opponents at even strength and on the power play, the Kings have been able to jump-start a long-dormant offense. Through its first 12 games, Los Angeles is averaging 3.67 goals per game. That's up dramatically from the 2.46 gpg (which ranked 27th) the Kings produced last season.

Words cannot express just how geeked everyone in Hockeywood is for the Slovenian Stunner. It's been a long time that I've heard this much buzz surrounding the team since their last playoff run. But it's different, now that there's a clear top-tier player that people can single out as the face of the franchise. Whether he realizes it or not, No. 11 has officially made it Los Anzeles.