The Evgeny Kuznetsov revenge tour begins now

Yesterday we were going to write about how Evgeny Kuznetsov of the Washington Capitals got snubbed from the 2022 NHL All Star Game. We won’t have to do that anymore. On Sunday afternoon the NHL announced that Kuznetsov will replace New York Rangers defenseman Adam Fox on the Metropolitan Division roster. This is the second All Star Game appearance for the bird man.

In addition to Kuznetsov, the NHL also added Nashville Predators defenseman Roman Josi. Josi will play in his fourth career All Star Game, replacing Colorado Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon on the Central Division. Dallas Stars forward Joe Pavelski replaces MacKinnon as the Central Division captain.

The Golden Knights and the city of Las Vegas will host the All Star festivities this upcoming weekend with the skills challenge on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. eastern on ESPN and the game itself with a 3 on 3 divisional tournament format on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. eastern on ABC.

Kuznetsov was originally snubbed as he didn’t win the Last Men In vote, falling to Pittsburgh Penguins forward Jake Guentzel. But now Kuzy will join Alex Ovechkin, who received the most votes among players at 30.4 percent.

Kuznetsov has four points in his last five games with a goal and three assists. Overall the 29 year old is miles better than he was last season. He’s got 13 goals and 30 assists for 43 points in 42 games. All are improvements from the 41 games he played last season where Kuzy finished with nine goals and 20 assists before being the subject of trade rumors all summer long.

If you’ve been following Stars and Sticks for the last three years, you know we all like to get every trend, story and rumor about the Capitals from every angle. Personally I was 50/50 when it came to the subject of trading Kuzy and looked at both ends of the spectrum. The good and the bad.

Now that I think about it, trading Kuznetsov or even exposing him in the Seattle Kraken Expansion Draft would have done Kuzy and the Caps more harm than good. The Caps would have been saying goodbye to one of the most talented and playmaking centers (besides of course Nicklas Backstrom) and it would’ve left a sour impression on Kuzy if they did that too him.

Thankfully we don’t have to worry about that. The Kuznetsov revenge tour is alive and well and now it heads to Sin City for the entire hockey world to see.