The origins of Evgeny Kuznetsov’s creativity
With a flair for the dramatic, he isn’t just concerned with scoring but also how he does it
Evgeny Kuznetsov has scoured the depths of YouTube. He might begin his search with “Alexei Kovalev highlights” or “Pavel Datsyuk dangles,” watching every video and making mental notes, inspiration for what to try next or how he should tape his stick. Those searches often lead him to another video, then another, each dazzling move like a personal challenge to the Washington Capitals’ Russian centre.
He’s often one of the first players on the ice for a Capitals practice, dragging pucks with him as he attempts odd-angle shots from the goal-line. Because how cool would it be if he actually scored with one in a game? And what if he did it with his backhand?
“I just love to try some new stuff, and I feel like the more crazy stuff you do on the ice, it actually builds the momentum for your team,” Kuznetsov said.
Kuznetsov has a flair for the dramatic, and he is not just concerned with scoring but also how he does it. The rink is his canvas. Search “Evgeny Kuznetsov highlights” on YouTube to see some of his art, a collection that includes Kuznetsov batting in a rebound out of the air as if it were a baseball and no-look backhand passes as he’s skating around the net. He’s bold with what he attempts on the ice, and he’s talented enough that the Capitals don’t want to quash his creativity.
After he scored a career-high 27 goals and 83 points this season, his unique vision and imagination is what will propel him into a higher echelon of players.
“I feel like I need that, when people give me pressure and they always want more from me,” Kuznetsov said. “I feel like when I get 77 points two years ago, I am like Jesus. Now it’s more than 80 points, and I still feel like, c’mon man, you can be better.”
His technique can take some of the most ordinary moments in games and make them special. Washington was in Tampa Bay for the third game of the season when Kuznetsov carried the puck into the offensive zone, gliding in a way that deceived opposing players with his speed because his skates didn’t appear to be moving. In the press box, one of that night’s healthy scratches turned to his Capitals teammate: “Kuzy might be the best player I’ve ever been on the same team with,” he said.
“He’s an elite player in my mind,” general manager Brian MacLellan said. “Him carrying the puck through the middle of the ice is as high-end as it gets. There’s him and (Edmonton Oilers centre Connor) McDavid. It’s dynamic to watch them go through the middle of the ice.”
For a second year in a row, McDavid finished with the most points in the National Hockey League (108), and in McDavid’s games against the Capitals, coach Barry Trotz has typically tasked Kuznetsov with defending him, even though Nicklas Backstrom is considered the more defensively responsible centre. But as MacLellan put it, it’s against that level of competition that Kuznetsov is “trying to make a statement.” With the playoffs beginning this week, the competition the Capitals will face will only improve, starting with their first-round series against the Columbus Blue Jackets. And Washington will continue to rely on Kuznetsov to rise to the challenge.
“A couple of years ago, he was a good player and he didn’t know how good he was,” Trotz said, “or maybe he did know and he wasn’t having quite the success and understanding he could. As he’s grown, I think Kuzy knows he’s one of the top players in the league. When you give him a challenge or a matchup that you say, ’Try to stop this guy,’ he usually has that little smirk and goes, ’No, he’s going to be trying to stop me tonight.’ ”
As the Capitals prepared to play in the Stadium Series outdoor game at the Naval Academy last month, Trotz emphasized that his team would have to simplify its game with the expected wind gusts and questionable ice conditions. When a reporter asked Kuznetsov about that approach, he shrugged and opted for honesty. “I never keep it simple,” he said.
A few weeks later, Trotz chuckled at the exchange.
“But he can do a lot of things that, as a coach, there’s that one per cent or two per cent in the league that you just have to trust that they’re going to get it done because they’re that good,” Trotz said.
Kuznetsov’s movements and style are a signature. He and Backstrom are interchangeable as Washington’s top two centers, a “two-headed monster,” as Trotz has called them, because opposing teams have to pick one against which to deploy their top defensive pairing, giving the other an easier time. But the way they approach their job is rather different, with Backstrom preferring subtlety, Kuznetsov favouring flamboyance.
Kuznetsov attempted a lacrosse-style shot in a game against the New York Rangers two weeks ago, pressing the blade of his stick into the puck to scoop it as he came around the back of the net. The attempt failed, but had he managed to float it into the top corner of the cage as intended, he would’ve been the first NHL player to score in that fashion. He’d come across the move during one of his YouTube binges, and just a few days after Kuznetsov’s try, Nashville winger Filip Forsberg attempted it, also unsuccessfully.
Before he had a laptop, Kuznetsov spent roughly 12 hours a day at his hometown hockey rink in Chelyabinsk. Kuznetsov and his family moved to Omsk when he was 14, right when the NHL was in the 2004-05 lockout. Jaromir Jagr, the second-highest point scorer in NHL history, was playing for the Omsk Avangard team that season, and a giddy Kuznetsov would sit in the stands and watch his every move in practice.
“When they signed Jagr, we think, ‘Holy (expletive), it’s actually Jagr, he’s legit,’” Kuznetsov said. “Then when we saw him on the ice, and it’s like, ‘Holy (expletive), is it seriously Jagr?’ Because the way he skates, the way he plays, it looks like he can’t even do anything. But then when we actually saw his first game and things he can do on the ice, it’s unbelievable.”
Some of the Omsk team trainers told Kuznetsov that Jagr would get some extra practice time in at 2 a.m., so Kuznetsov started sneaking into the rink late at night, watching from an upstairs window so Jagr wouldn’t see him. Then he’d sleep in the locker-room afterward. The drills and shots Jagr would run through in those latenight hours on the ice, Kuznetsov would then attempt the next day.