The Capitals’ informal skate on Tuesday got significantly more Russian.

According to CSN Mid-Atlantic’s Tarik El-Bashir, Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and Dmitry Orlov joined Philipp Grubauer, Lucas Johansen, Connor Hobbs, Jonas Siegenthaler, Vitek Vanecek, Nathan Walker, and Minnesota Wild prospect Sam Anas on the ice at Kettler Capitals Iceplex.

The Caps troika is back, y’all.

Video

Ovechkin, Kuznetsov and Orlov have joined the #Caps' informal skates… pic.twitter.com/oUf7obJ4KE

— Tarik El-Bashir (@TarikCSN) August 29, 2017

Ovechkin did not take any questions from the media — he will speak to reporters on the first day of training camp — but Evgeny Kuznetsov had one observation he needed to share.

“You can see he lost some weight,” Kuznetsov said to El-Bashir. “Every year you’re trying to be better. You change something in the summer. Ovi’s like other guys, too—he wants to change something, right?

“It’s always good when you see the guys who are 30 or more years, they know they have to practice hard,” Kuznetsov added. “For me, when you get a couple more kilograms, it’s a couple practices [to lose it]. But for older guys that takes like five, six days. That’s tough. That’s why the older guys have to work more and more and more.”

Here are a few more photos and observations from the beat reporters.

@ovi8 among the early arrivals for Caps today pic.twitter.com/S9KgjRDrh1

— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) August 29, 2017

This is the earliest I can remember Ovechkin being back in the DC area to skate. He turns 32 on Sept. 17.

— Stephen Whyno (@SWhyno) August 29, 2017

Headline photo: @TomGulittiNHL