Strip away all the elite hockey talent and pure athletic ability, and at his core, Evgeny Kuznetsov is still a 22-year-old occasionally left to fend for himself in a strange new country across the world.
In a hasty arrangement, Kuznetsov left HC Traktor, the professional hockey team based in his Russian hometown, nearly a year ago to join the Washington Capitals. He said goodbye to his wife and his parents and headed west to the United States, where he often felt so isolated and alone during the final month of the season that he rarely ventured out of his hotel.
Such seclusion led to frequent phone calls home to Chelyabinsk, and inevitably an interrogation from his father, also named Evgeny, who remained skeptical of his son’s decision. Kuznetsov’s father once played hockey himself, and why Kuznetsov would leave everything he could ever ask for — at home, no less — for a jaunt overseas has remained a mystery.
That is, Kuznetsov hopes, until later this week. For the first time since leaving home last summer, Kuznetsov will see his father, with the pair to be reunited in Los Angeles as part of the team’s annual fathers’ trip. There, Kuznetsov hopes to be able to not just explain, but show, his father what hockey is like in North America.
“Oh, it’s very important for him,” Kuznetsov said. “He want to look at this. Sometimes, when I talk to him, he has to give me the question, ’Why do I want to play in the NHL?’ You come, you see why. So, right now, three, four days, my father understands why.”
The comfort Kuznetsov has sought has, in one measure, been achieved on the ice, where he’s settled into his role as the Capitals’ second-line center. Outside of left wing Alex Ovechkin, he’s been Washington’s most consistent player since the all-star break, having picked up eight points in eight games.
On Sunday, in the 3-1 loss to the visiting Philadelphia Flyers, it was Kuznetsov who had the primary assist on Ovechkin’s power-play goal, with the center digging the puck out of the right corner and threading the needle with a beautiful pass to Ovechkin in the slot.
Despite Kuznetsov’s talent, Capitals coach Barry Trotz has tried to simplify things for the young center in his first full season. It’s daunting enough for Kuznetsov to adjust to a new position — he has played in the middle and on the wing in the past — before adding in the challenges of playing in a new league on unfamiliar ice.
He has, though, gradually handed Kuznetsov additional responsibilities, entrusting him with time on the power play and to take defensive-zone draws. Having seen roughly 13 minutes of ice time for most of the season, Kuznetsov played a season-high 18:30 against the Anaheim Ducks on Friday, and against the Flyers, he played on all six power-play opportunities, totaling 4:26 and leading to the goal.
“I think his confidence with the puck right now is really good,” Trotz said. “He’s getting more comfortable with the league. I think he’s more comfortable where you get over the halfway point and you’re not trying to find your game, you’re trying to establish your game, and I think he’s established his game.”
To foster Kuznetsov’s improvement, Trotz also found it important to join him with a pair of veterans — left wing Marcus Johansson and right wing Troy Brouwer — who could provide him with a measure of security and stability. Save a game or two, the trio had been together from the end of November through Feb. 3, when Trotz, seeking a spark, moved Johansson to the top line.
In fact, though Johansson had played alongside Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom on the top line for the better part of the past two seasons, Trotz was unwilling to have Johansson fill that role because of what he has meant to Kuznetsov.
“When you first come into the league, you don’t really know many of your opponents, and that can be a big part — knowing what type of players you’re playing against every night,” Brouwer said. “Even guys on our team, when we get paired up with new wingers, he’s got a better concept of how they’re going to play when they’re joining our line. Lately, I think we’ve been a very successful line, and we’ve got to continue that. He’s a big part of it.”
That’s what Kuznetsov wants to show his father. Upon returning to the United States this summer, Kuznetsov has found the questions have been less cynical more open-minded. Now, the elder Kuznetsov wants to know about Arlington and Washington and life in America.
There will be doubts, of course, but Kuznetsov hopes to erase them. The old way was the past. This is the future.
“[He’ll] enjoy like, moments with whole team, this kind of stuff,” Kuznetsov said. “I want to bring to locker room today and show him all this stuff. It’s big difference than 25 years ago, my dad play hockey. Big difference, you know?”
• Zac Boyer can be reached at zboyer@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.