On Friday night, the Washington Capitals will play host the Carolina Hurricanes for an important game. Suiting up for the visiting team will be Russian forward Evgeny Kuznetsov. Kuznetsov, 31, is an 11-year veteran of the NHL. Actually, many of those seasons were played for the Washington Capitals.
If you are one of the people for whom that fact is news, here’s a brief explainer on who exactly Evgeny Kuznetsov is.
The enigmatic Capital
Kuznetsov was drafted by the Washington Capitals in 2010, playing his first game for the team in 2014, a 3-2 loss to the Penguins. He scored his first NHL goal two weeks later, a net-front scramble while the Caps had an empty net. In 723 games with the Caps, he scored 170 more regular-season goals. And in the Capital’s 2018 championship run he scored a team-leading 32 points.
In 2015-16, Kuznetsov recorded 43 primary assists, more than any player that season and more than any Caps player in the analytics era. He never quite cracked 30 goals himself, but he’s tallied more than 70 points in four seasons. He’s scored 31 game-winning goals and received Selke votes in 2016 and 2017.
He has not received Selke votes since then, despite some fan-led campaigns urging it. Kuznetsov’s 2022-23 season had a defensive WAR score of minus-8.6, worse than only seven skaters’ seasons over the last five years. When Kuznetsov was on the ice in 2023-24, the Capitals allowed 15 percentage points more offense than league average, according to this visualization from HockeyViz, in which red blobs indicate locations where opponents shoot more often.
Kuznetsov’s time in Washington was full of ups and downs, where the ups were some of the franchise’s greatest moments, and the lows were too low to recount today. Today we are just learning about Kuznetsov, the most entertaining man in hockey.
Quote king
Kuznetsov was the best interviewee in Caps history.
- On winning a playoff round: “It’s not time for celebrate.”
- “Maybe getting points is nice, but I would gladly trade them all for a chance to play in the Stanley Cup Final”
- About a goal from a lucky bounce: “By the way it’s not a lucky bounce.”
- On the Conn Smythe: “What’s that going to get you? Nothing, right?”
- On being a top-five player in the NHL: “I don’t give a shit about that.”
- On getting benched: “Uh, that shit happens, right?”
- On quitting video games: “I get very emotional”
- On team defense: “We can play offensive hockey in the summer beer league”
- On Peter Laviolette’s inspiring timeout speech: “To be honest with you, I didn’t hear anything.”
- On a mistake that cost the Capitals a win: “Only dead people don’t make mistakes, right?”
- On the boldness of the team: “We have lots of balls in this locker room.”
Not faceoff king
Kuznetsov’s career faceoff win percentage is 44.1, which is not great if you’re a center. But as much as one might criticize Kuznetsov for not always caring, you can’t deny he wanted to win this one.
When Kuznetsov won a faceoff, sometimes that could be reason enough for celebration.
The exorcist
Until 2018, the Washington Capitals advanced past the second round of the playoffs once. But on May 7 of that year, in overtime, Alex Ovechkin sprung Kuznetsov for an odd-man rush and Kuznetsov exorcised the demons, as John Walton put it.
The Capitals made it to the Conference Final, and you know what happened from there.
The birdman
Evgeny Kuznetsov’s signature goal celebration is an imitation of a bird flapping its wings. In a hard-hitting interview with Ilya Bryzgalov, Kuznetsov revealed the bird in question is neither a chicken, nor an eagle. It is a pigeon.
The bird celly was deemed unacceptable by Don Cherry, a retired man from Ontario, Canada. “I couldn’t believe it. The Birdman. Look. He gives ’em that in front of their bench. [ . . .] You do not make fun of a team when you score. You play the game. That’s the Canadian way.”
(Kuznetsov is not Canadian.)
There has been at times blowback to the celebration, specifically by the Columbus Blue Jackets, who have mocked it on two occassions, as well as by Marc-Andre Fleury. Even Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom have imitated the signature move. But Kuznetsov has persisted in the celebration. Because his daughter likes it. So do the kids.
“Jokes”
Years ago, I was told by Youths in the comments that Kuznetsov’s high-end scoring talent should be described in today’s slang as jokes. I am taking their word for it. Kuznetsov is jokes.
Evgeny Kuznetsov scores a no-look power-play goal from no angle 👀
Evgeny Kuznetsov scores to finish electrifying passing sequence
This Evgeny Kuznetsov-Andre Burakovsky Goal Is So Good It’s Stupid (Video)
Highlights from Evgeny Kuznetsov’s Hat Trick and Russia’s 6-5 Win Over Canada
Evgeny Kuznetsov Scores Epic Game-Winning/Series-Winning Goal (GIF)
But it’s not all jokes all the time. There have been moments when Kuznetsov has been too fancy for his own good, including flubbing a breakaway attempt by trying a between-the-legs move. This was not popular with the coach.
The shootout move
The shootout alone is controversial, but Evgeny Kuznetsov languidly serpentines up the ice on his way to a shot, then it’s infuriating (to some people, not us; we love it). He’s done it many times because it works. Why does it work? “I don’t know to be honest with you,” Kuznetsov said last year.
There are so many more things
Do you remember the time Kuznetsov tried to dodge a too-many-men penalty by going to the other team’s bench? Remember when he placed dead last in a fastest skater competition? When he joined a crowd in booing Tom Wilson? When he brought a Kings player into a group hug? When he tried to do the opposite, gate-crashing a Penguins huddle?
Or the time he lost a bet and had to carry Ovechkin’s shopping bags? The time he wore Mike Green’s helmet? The many times he played goalie? The time he improvised after Brett Connolly left him hanging on a fist bump? The time he dodged twenty rioting mites? The time he entered a contest to win a jersey signed by himself?
Evgeny Kuznetsov was simply the most charismatic player in Capitals history. I love him. And I hope he gets smoked tonight.
