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Evgeny Kuznetsov says he quit playing video games because ‘I get very emotional’

By Ian Oland

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June 30, 2020 6:25 pm

Evgeny Kuznetsov spoke about hockey, his family, and giving up video games in a new interview with the Capitals sponsored by Oscar Mayer.

Kuzy, who’s “so excited” to be playing hockey again, has apparently retired from playing video games – though I am personally very skeptical.

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“At some point, I quit playing video games because it was like so annoying that people are so professional,” Kuzy said. “I get very emotional. At some point, I quit for a couple weeks.”

In early May, Kuznetsov lost in the first round of the NHL 20 Gaming Challenge to the Florida Panthers’ Jonathan Huberdeau. With minutes to go in the game and Kuznetsov trailing 5-2, someone’s connection mysteriously dropped.

“As is life sometimes, we lost connection last game 5-2 with about four minutes to go,” NHL Gaming Challenge host Alex Faust said as Kuznetsov laughed sheepishly and uncontrollably. “I’m not going to point fingers at anybody, but with the Panthers’ and Jonathan Huberdeau leading, I think we’re going to hand him the win.”

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This follows Kuznetsov’s joking revelation in January that he might throw down with Russian teammate Ilya Samsonov over their intense games.

“We pretty much play every day,” Kuznetsov said then. “Last three days, he won one game. We play 10 times. So, suck on that, Sammy.”

Kuznetsov added, “between us, it’s going to end up with the fight, you know, in the room.”

During the coronavirus pandemic, Kuznetsov stayed in the DC area and spent much of his time his kids, Ecenia and Fedor.

“I was pretty much [with them] all the time,” Kuznetsov said. “It’s actually kind of went really smooth and nice to spend the time together. It’s tough to understand that we have to sit home (but) at the same time, we did everything… for them. The time was flying pretty quick like that.”

Beyond being a dad, Kuzy also did more mature, adult things like sleep more.

“Now I just watch some movies and get some rest, especially when I start training,” Kuznetsov continued. “It’s very important to get at least six hours, eight hours (of sleep). The little one it’s not that easy sometimes.”

Here are other Kuznetsov’s other responses.

What’s been the most difficult part about getting back into shape during Phase 2 workouts?

Evgeny Kuznetsov: “Absolutely nothing. Everything is easy because we’ve been… no seriously (!)… we’ve been home. We get enough rest when we come back we’re so excited. When you’re excited like that, you don’t feel how tired you are during the practice or something like that. Of course, some of those like skill details on the ice you have to be three, four times you have to skate just to remember some moments but overall it was very very nice to be back. The coaches were on the ice with us when they’re allowed to. It was help a lot, because when we’re by ourself it’s tough.”

When training camps start, do you think the four months off will give the Caps any type of advantage over other teams?

Evgeny Kuznetsov: “No, I don’t know. We’ll see I guess. But I do think that it helped that we get so much months rest for everybody. We can just sit back and think about some stuff the way we played about the future, we think about things that happen in the world. It’s not easy to think about hockey so many days in a row and then one day we basically break for four months. We just have to learn from this. We have to learn as much as possible you can about the positive stuff, not the negative.”

Do you think living in the bubble will help bring the team together more?

Evgeny Kuznetsov: “I’m definitely one of the guys who would love to have (the bubble city) because I feel like, especially in the playoff when you know sometimes you thinking about hockey all the time. At some point, you get back home and you have a different life. You have to do so many different things that may give you some emotional reactions, right? I think it will be absolutely perfect for everybody. I know we have to stay away from the families, but at the same time, we’re not playing for regular-season game when there’s 82 games, now we’re playing for Stanley Cup. I know Ovi’s talking you have to give up sometimes something to get the result. This is the best idea to see how we can handle that. As long as we stay, everybody, on the same page and every team will be the same in the bubble, it just think it gonna help our team especially with that moment.”

Does it feel like something’s actually happening with more players hitting the ice?

Evgeny Kuznetsov: “Today’s the first day when we played three-on-three so I was excited.”

Headline photo courtesy of the Capitals

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