Washington Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery announced on Monday that veteran forward Evgeny Kuznetsov will be a healthy scratch against the Arizona Coyotes.
The news, reported by The Washington Post’s Bailey Johnson, comes after Kuznetsov was demoted to the team’s fourth line and benched late in the third period against the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday.
According to Johnson, Carbery called the move a “mental reset” for the Russian center. The game would have been the 700th of Kuznetsov’s NHL career.
Kuznetsov played a season-low 15:20 of ice time against Vegas, was a minus-3 against the Anaheim Ducks a game prior, and has just one point in his past six games. He was also recently separated from Alex Ovechkin on a line for the first time in several games.
Monday’s healthy scratch will be Kuznetsov’s first since a May 3, 2021 game in New York against the Rangers. Kuznetsov and goaltender Ilya Samsonov were late to a team meeting and both sat out by then coach Peter Laviolette for disciplinary reasons. Kuznetsov also sat out games healthy under Barry Trotz very early in his career.
The Capitals were at their worst with Kuznetsov on the ice at five-on-five against Vegas. In that 11:22 of ice time, they saw negative differentials in shot attempts (-10), scoring chances (-7), and high-danger chances (-1). Perhaps the breaking point for Carbery though was a roughing penalty he took late in the second, where he gave the Golden Knights their fourth power play of the game following a confrontation with Jonathan Marchessault.
Kuznetsov has struggled to produce for much of the 2023-24 season, currently on pace for his lowest-scoring campaign since his sophomore year. Carbery cited poor analytics for the reason why Kuznetsov was initially moved away from Ovechkin.
“We’re looking at a different look up front and it might move around a little bit,” Carbery said Saturday afternoon. “The line, just overall, we’ve been having some success but it hasn’t fared well analytically at all so we’ve got to look to make some adjustments and change some things up. Even though the old adage from a coach is that you keep it the same or a lot of coaches keep it the same when you win. But I think that’s not forward thinking.”
The Capitals will take on the Coyotes at 9 pm. With Kuznetsov out of the lineup, their four centers will likely be Dylan Strome, Connor McMichael, Hendrix Lapierre, and Nic Dowd.
Headline photo: Alan Dobbins/RMNB
