The Washington Capitals defeated the Buffalo Sabres 4-3 in the shootout. While Alex Ovechkin will get all the headlines for the shootout game-winner, Evgeny Kuznetsov deserves major props for his stunningly slow attempt that found the back of the twine.
During a shootout, a shooter must continue to move forward at all times. Kuzy pushed that rule to the limit, approaching the Sabres’ goal at approximately 0.5 MPH before beating Dustin Tokarski a few feet outside the crease.
Evgeny Kuznetsov with one of the slowest shootout goals ever pic.twitter.com/qZ2TZsyagB
— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) March 26, 2022
Let me try to do the play-by-play here. Kuzy veers out on the right wing, slows down, slows down some more, slows down to a glacial pace, dekes forehand backhand, dekes forehand backhand, dekes forehand backhand, dekes forehand backhand, dekes forehand backhand, dekes forehand backhand, dekes forehand backhand, dekes forehand backhand, dekes forehand backhand, dekes forehand backhand, dekes forehand backhand, dekes forehand backhand, dekes forehand backhand, dekes forehand backhand, dekes forehand backhand, dekes forehand backhand, dekes forehand backhand, dekes forehand backhand, and beats Tokarski on the forehand!!
Evgeny Kuznetsov the man of 5,000 dekes
— RMNB (@rmnb) March 26, 2022
After the game, NBC Sports Washington’s Joe Beninati about the move on the postgame show.
“My job was I wanted goalie to get momentum with me so I wanted to kind of freeze a little bit and stop,” Kuznetsov said. “As soon I saw he’s not on his heels, he was tall and leaning forward that’s when I decided to shoot. So basically I was trying to make him move first.”
Beninati asked Kuzy when he first came up with the move.
“Since I born,” the Russian center deadpanned.
It appeared he took a page from Patrick Kane.
“No, he does it a little different,” Kuznetsov replied.
"covid won't last that long"
covid: pic.twitter.com/5DYqaqstvy
— mojo is home (@OVECHKlN) March 26, 2022
Ovechkin followed up Kuzy’s attempt with a goal on his backhand giving the Capitals a 4-3 win.
“That was a pretty good game, a pretty tight game,” Kuznetsov said. “They have their looks. Both teams should be happy. We got two points. They got one point. both teams deserve a point for sure. It just got decided by penalty shots at the end there. We got a little more lucky out there.”
I disagree!
Here’s the full shootout via Sportsnet.
