It’s not every day the NHL gets to witness a bit of history in the making. In the case of Anze Kopitar, he is of Slovenian descent playing in the NHL. Jan Mursak followed not too long after. There aren’t many a player who hails from that region in the world playing in the greatest theatre in sport. The NHL.

Given that he just won the cup last night on June 11th. Eleven won the cup on the eleventh day of June. Pretty cool huh?

Added after submitting this post: Was the Kings 11th overall pick. Woah cool!

Added after receiving a reply that I was incorrect in my notes about Anze. Mr. Zero wasn’t the first Slovenian born player to win the cup. Too bad I couldn’t have spent more time to get my facts right. Thanks again to the person to replied to me.

So how many other first have their been in the NHL? Well let’s find out shall we?

Jim Paek, was the first Korean NHLer who played with the Penguins and won a cup. Makes him the first Korean to win the cup too!

Robin Bawa first player of Indian (east) decent to play in the NHL. Played for the Caps, Canucks and Ducks.

Yutaka Fukufuji first Japanese player to be selected into the NHL.

Willie O’Ree, first African Canadian NHLer to play with the NHL with the Boston Bruins

Larry Kwong, first Chinese player to play in the NHL. Rangers and Canadiens

Manon Rheaume was the first woman signed to an NHL contract. Yet she never played a game in the NHL. Would that ever change? Only time will tell.

I will keep this post short. As you can tell I had some issues coming up with something original for this particular post. Unfortunately it is the best I could come up with. Bah! Onto the next post.