When Daniel Winnik got traded to the Washington Capitals late last month, we figured the grinding forward would get an offensive boost playing with DC’s high end talent. We just didn’t realize how easy they would make it for him.
With the Capitals trailing 1-0, Winnik jumped on the ice in the waning seconds of a Capitals power play. Braden Holtby and Evgeny Kuznetsov, however, weren’t quite done with their work on the man-advantage. Despite the seconds ticking down, Holtby fed Kuznetsov puck the puck in the Capitals’ zone off off a brilliant, high-flying breakout pass that easily found the Russian forward.
“That’s something we try to do in the past, usually at the end of the power play when you’re not worried about changing or anything like that,” Holtby said of the play. “You’re trying to get it into their zone at the end of the power play. You know Kuzy’s gonna make those reads. He read it well.”
After collecting the puck from Holtby, Kuznetsov unleashed a telepathic cross-ice pass to Winnik. With the a minor flick of the wrist the 31-year-old Winnik had his first goal with Washington. And Holtby ended up with his first point of the season.
“I’m happy for him he make the point,” Kuznetsov said. “That’s very important for goalie. … He can fire puck pretty well. That’s a great play.”
“He can make pretty nice sauce,” Kuznetsov concluded.
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