Photo: @kuzy092

We’re still 7 weeks away from training camp, but two important Washington Capitals players have already made it back to the district: Evgeny Kuznetsov and Dmitry Orlov.

(A whole month early for training?! What a bunch of lazy, unreliable Russians! Am I doing this right?)

We were tipped off to the players’ movements when Kuznetsov posted a selfie with his wife on Instagram shortly after boarding a plane at 2AM on Thursday. His caption was, “✈️✈️✈️ DC,” which means either that he had two connecting flights or — like me — he realizes that emoticons are effective only if you repeat them a lot.

Eight hours later, Orlov posted a photo posing with his girlfriend at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in D.C. I cannot tell if his broken left arm is healed or out of the cast yet.

At the end of the season, Kuznetsov and Orlov spoke to RMNB’s Igor Kleyner about their plans to use the last few weeks of summer as a springboard into next year.

“I think I will come back here a bit earlier to get a good head start on preparations for the next season,” Kuznetsov said in April, living up to his word. “I am going to concentrate on getting bigger.”

Kuznetsov said he would plan on training with Capitals strength and conditioning coach Mark Nemish. “I need to become stronger,” he said. “I can’t say that I have felt a lack of physical strength here, but I only got to play in a few games; if I had to play the whole season, all 82 games, I am not sure how I would feel.”

In past years, Orlov would arrive in the United States at the end of July or the beginning of August. Last summer, Orlov trained with fellow Russians Semyon Varlamov and Stan Galiev in Amish Country under the supervision of workout guru Steve Saunders.