We have important hair-related news to report.
Early Monday, hours after the Pittsburgh Penguins surged into first place in the Metropolitan Division standings, Evgeni Malkin posted a video in his Instagram story of Capitals star Evgeny Kuznetsov.
The Russian language video is from June 12, 2017.
Video
Video: @e.malkin71geno
“There’s a rumor going around that if you win your second Cup in a row, you’ll shave your head,” Kuznetsov said according to a Graham Dumas translation. “But I’ll support you then, even if you win again, I’ll shave my head for a year.”
A friend, sitting beside Kuznetsov responds, “well, there you go!”
Here’s the tricky part. Because Kuznetsov was likely in Russia when this video was shot — 10 hours ahead if he was in Chelyabinsk — it’s unknown if it was recorded and sent to Malkin before or after the Penguins repeated as champions around 11pm on June 11.
So either Kuznetsov has reneged on his deal to shave his head all season long. Or Kuznetsov promised Malkin he’d shave his head next year if the Penguins three-peat. Regardless of which meaning, I have two takeaways:
- Russian hockey players are very supportive of each other, regardless of if they play on rival teams.
- We may be seeing Kuzy bald soon.
S/T to @HockeyKot for first tweeting the video and translation.
