Evgeny Kuznetsov told Capitals media on Thursday, the first day of Training Camp, that he played through a lingering injury during the 2022-23 season.
“A little bit, but nothing that probably I’m going to talk about publicly,” he said in English. “But there are a lot of guys playing hurt a little bit.”
Speaking publicly in a Russian-language interview with Slippery Ice, Kuznetsov said that it was a back injury that lasted five months.
Via a sports.ru transcription and a Google translation, this is how the conversation went.
Have there been many injuries this year?
Evgeny Kuznetsov: Everyone had a lot, yes.
But can we talk about them now?
Evgeny Kuznetsov: No, they are so small. I’ve already damaged my hand here, but it’s my back. I suffered a lot with my back this season.
What do you mean “suffered”? Did you get injections?
Evgeny Kuznetsov: No, there are no injections. I called the doctor at three o’clock in the morning, it would happen: “Come, I can’t straighten up.” He would come and look… he would hang a magnet there, some kind of current. The magnets apparently relaxed the muscles a little – and it was possible to poke around. Probably five months with this thing. You turn on the currents all night – they beat. Yes, it’s like you’re not sleeping, but at least you’re not in pain.
It turns out that the blood circulates and restores?
Evgeny Kuznetsov: Yes, the muscle relaxes. They couldn’t understand why my spasm was happening this way. Spasm, yes. It starts from the back of the head and ends at the chest. My lower back – pah-pah-pah – by the way, didn’t hurt. From the cervical vertebra and here it goes to the thoracic vertebra. Apparently everything is fine here, below.
Listen, training is not allowed at all.
Evgeny Kuznetsov: I started training in the summer and the pain returned again.
Kuznetsov would go on to say in the Slippery Ice interview that the pain eventually resolved itself later in the summer.
Kuznetsov struggled during the 2022-23 season, posting 55 points (12g, 43a) for his worst-scoring campaign since his sophomore year in the NHL. Several Capitals also mentioned during their initial Training Camp press conferences that Kuznetsov was not fully healthy last season.
General manager Brian MacLellan said “Kuznetsov had some health issues, too. I give him a break on that.”
Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin suggested it may have led to a decline in play.
“I’m sure he’s going to prove himself from last year because he was hurt as well,” Ovechkin said. “When you hurt, when you can’t play 100 percent, it’s tough.”
“I’m one of those that always believed, that stuck in my head when Michael Jordan said he had the best game when he was sick, right?” Kuznetsov said at MedStar Capitals Iceplex Thursday. “So I was always thinking about that: if you feel uncomfortable and in pain, whatever, you’ve got to go through it. It kind of feels good when you go through. And mentally, you fight. I feel like if you if you’re able to walk you you’re going to play.”
Kuznetsov was not on the Capitals roster for the first preseason game of the year on Sunday. He hasn’t missed a session of Training Camp though he was seen limping to and fro his first interview due to a different injury.
Headline photo: Alan Dobbins/RMNB
