Burnside: Caps’ Kuznetsov enjoying renaissance season after taking more responsibility
Seems like a long time ago, that 2018 Stanley Cup run for the Washington Capitals. And by extension it seems even longer ago for star center Evgeny Kuznetsov.
Still, even though so much has happened since, even though so much has clouded that particular moment, I remember being in the press box before Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final in Las Vegas talking to folks around the Capitals and other NHL executives before placing Kuznetsov at the top of my Conn Smythe Trophy ballot.
The playoff MVP award ended up going to captain Alex Ovechkin, but that entire season was in many ways a coming out party for Kuznetsov. His 32 points in 24 games paced the postseason, 20 of them at even strength. He scored 12 playoff goals. He was dynamic.
After a career-best regular season that saw him record 83 points Kuznetsov had, it appeared, finally arrived. Pretty sure we tabbed him to win the Hart Trophy and/or the Art Ross trophy the following season.
Rookie head coach Todd Reirden, who took over for Barry Trotz after Trotz departed for the New York Islanders shortly after the Caps’ seminal Cup win, talked to us about counting on Kuznetsov even more as part of his leadership core in Washington.
And then, after having arrived with all the fanfare someone of his skill set might expect, well, Kuznetsov seemed to un-arrive.
Rather spectacularly, in fact.
We’ll get back to that. But right now we’re sitting in the lobby of a Las Vegas hotel on the eve of the NHL’s All Star weekend and Kuznetsov is joking that he’s prepared to answer three questions. I tell him most of my questions are long-winded so three should be about right.
The Vegas event was Kuzentsov’s second All Star appearance. His first was in 2016 in Nashville and he recalled being shy around the other players and wondering if he should shake their hands in the locker room. His daughter was just one and he brought her along for the festivities.
Since then Kuznetsov has added a son who is turning three. His daughter is now turning seven.
Later this weekend, Metropolitan Division head coach Rod Brind’Amour will remark that Kuznetsov was among the players that stood out for him as the Metro won the $1 million All Star prize: his personality, his determination, his desire to win even within the loosey-goosey confines of the All Star festivities.
It stands as a small snapshot of what has become a season of significant renaissance for Kuznetsov.
Since that vivid moment in Vegas after Game 5 with Ovechkin standing, finally, with a Stanley Cup over his head, the Capitals have suffered through an epic Cup hangover. There have been injuries and multiple COVID-19 outbreaks and dispassionate play and a coaching change that brought Peter Laviolette to the Caps’ bench before the 2020-21 season.
The team has been one-and-done in the post-season in three straight years and Kuznetsov has in some ways become the poster boy for the team’s decline.
He tested positive for cocaine at the World Championships in 2019, earning a four-year ban from international competition from the IIHF and the NHL added a three-game ban for “inappropriate conduct.”
He twice contracted COVID last season and his level of play has fluctuated wildly – not unlike the play of his teammates frankly – and by the end of last season there were multiple reports the team was tired of Kuznetsov in spite of his wealth of talent and were exploring possible trades.
We’ve had occasion to spend time with Kuznetsov over the years and we are always left with an appreciation of his take on life, hockey and otherwise. He grew up in a family that didn’t have a lot and fairly early on it became clear his considerable hockey talents were going to be a way to make sure there was food on the table and clothes on the family’s back.
Kuznetsov left his home in Chelyabinsk before he was a teenager to play more competitive hockey in Omsk and has never looked back – even if it’s a path he makes clear he doesn’t want his own children following.
“Hockey gave me everything right? But that’s a tough road,” Kuznetsov said. “If you look at how many friends and other hockey players they didn’t get there, that’s a gamble. I want my kids to enjoy the life. It was always hard for us you know? You have to grind all the time. That was the only way. If I want to get groceries, that was the goal, to get my family a better life.”
If being back at All-Star weekend is a validation of changes made on and off the ice, Kuznetsov is one of those rare players that doesn’t avoid talking about criticism the past couple of seasons.
He wished people knew how sick he was with COVID so they could understand at least some of the reasons for his play. He says he was bedridden for 10 days and at times he said he could barely drive home from the rink without stopping he was so fatigued.
But at the end of the day, his play wasn’t good enough and he knows that.
“I was okay, I had a bad year. Okay, I’m going to do whatever needs to be done and then I’m going to listen to people what they’re saying,” Kuznetsov said. “I accept it. I was like why is this happening? Oh this, this and that. Okay what do I have to do? Do I have to blame coach? Do I to blame teammates? Do I have to blame my wife? Do I have to blame Uber driver? It’s on me. Right. So, okay, I’ve got to clean my shit first. When you can take care of your own head first you can accept that I was shit. And then you start, it’s okay, I have to work, I have to get better.”
The path from understanding to action is a difficult one for anyone let alone elite athletes. But that path was traversed beginning with a series of frank discussions with Laviolette.
Kuznetsov recalled the first one in Washington in the offseason. They met for lunch.
“We sit down, we order food, we didn’t touch the food for a long time,” Kuznetsov said.
The conversations led to an understanding of what Laviolette needed from Kuznetsov, an adherence to the systems put in place by the coaches even if sometimes they were at odds with how Kuznetsov, a noted freelancer at times in his career, has preferred to play the game.
Honestly, it sounds like the same kinds of conversations that have been going on between elite players and their coaches for years. It’s almost hockey urban legend now the transformation of Detroit captain Steve Yzerman under Scotty Bowman from point machine to one of the greatest two-way centers in the game and ultimately a multiple Stanley Cup champion.
Connor McDavid is trying to find that same balance in Edmonton.
Kuznetsov admitted it’s been difficult at times because he sometimes feels as though he’s not doing what he needs to do when in fact he is. It’s just been harder to recognize when that’s happening.
“I think that the biggest change probably for me, I start believing more in the coaches’ system and I do give up a lot of offensive opportunities to score but I want to help defensive zone more, all those breakouts all that stuff,” Kuznetsov said.
“And it’s not just the words but you start to execute that,” he said. “And the funny thing is you’re thinking you had a bad game or you were doing bad things but he [Laviolette] comes next day and he’s positive; ‘No man, you had a great game.’ And you know in my head, it’s for me I see game a little different than he sees it and I’m maybe sad a little bit after the game but he’s like ‘No, I like it, just keep playing that way.’ And you know that’s kind of the line between and him and I’m learning his hockey and I start believing his hockey more than in the past.”
Laviolette won’t go into too much detail on the nuts and bolts of his offseason conversations with Kuznetsov. But suffice it to say the cards were on the table about what the team needed from the player and how that could be achieved.
“It was just about the year he had had, previous years and where he was,” Laviolette said. “I think he listened. It was just an honest conversation.”
“At the end of the day he’s the one who is in control of what he does,” added Laviolette, who recently recorded his 700th NHL coaching win.
The dominos have fallen in a mostly favorable way for Kuznetsov and the Capitals starting with those conversations and then having a strong summer of training and a strong mindset at camp.
“He was attacking the game with speed. His skill set is elite,” Laviolette said. “You could tell he was just enjoying it. He’s made the most of an opportunity.”
When a player with high expectations isn’t having a strong season and if things go sideways, “it can get noisy around that player,” Laviolette said. “He’s an important piece to this team and with the commitment that he made it’s confirmation that he is a very important part of it. He’s been able to really shine I think. He knows that he’s needed him here. He’s been accountable to that.”
The Capitals began the season on fire in spite of injuries to key personnel including veteran center Nicklas Backstrom. The team has cooled off of late but Kuznetsov remains a constant as a point-a-game producer with 48 points in 49 games. And whatever fissures had been created between the player and the organization – and those fissures were real – have been repaired.
“It wasn’t good. I don’t think he was all-in at the end of last year,” GM Brian MacLellan said. “The play wasn’t the best. I don’t know, the emotional connection with the team or with the success of the team was not totally there.”
It’s clear, though, the summer gave everybody a chance to reset.
“He’s been key to what we’ve done in the first part of the season,” MacLellan said. “Our top six was thin and he was our best player. He’s doing a lot of good things.”
“Peter’s a good communicator,” the GM explained. “They’ve had numerous discussions. I think it’s important for ‘Kuzy’ that he feels the coach relies on him and trusts him and put him in certain circumstances that some coaches wouldn’t.”
That has happened frequently this season as Kuznetsov has been a fixture on the top power play unit and been employed killing penalties.
“I think there’s always a balance between coaching staffs and players. How much leeway can you give him [the player] and how do your reel him back in? They’ve worked it out together,” MacLellan said. “I think that’s all a player can ask for – and that is honest communication.”
The view from outside seems to reflect the narrative from inside. Longtime NHLer and national broadcast analyst Brian Boucher will be doing the Capitals’ game against division foe (and possible first-round playoff opponent) the New York Rangers on Thursday.
He thinks there is a direct correlation to the added responsibilities like killing penalties to Kuznetsov’s return to elite play.
“Obviously with trade rumors, I think Kuznetsov got the message,” Boucher said of last year’s tumult. “They’re using him on P.K. now this year and I think that’s helped his game. More responsibility for him. There seemed to be an immaturity to Kuznetsov in years past. Obviously a very talented player, but not a guy that is considered a leader. He’s becoming more mature now and being given more responsibility and I think he’s responded in a real positive way.”
Of course, none of this happens if the player isn’t taking care of himself off the ice first and foremost. You’ve got to figure out life before you can figure out how you fit in an NHL system. Kuznetsov has a support network around him that has also been important to his rediscovering his groove.
Still, all of this starts and ends with Kuznetsov and accepting responsibility for the path his life journey takes.
“I always believe that if I bring positive vibes it will affect my teammates and in a better way but at the same time sometimes when things don’t go well, I leave the shoes behind the door. Sometimes you have to bring the shoes with you,” Kuznetsov said. “You have to share something and that’s what also was very important for me was we start being more or less a family this year. It’s more friendship. We know that we can always call one of the teammates and we can get whatever we need.”