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Washington Capitals: Evgeny Kuznetsov Needs to Step Up

By Benjamin Little

PITTSBURGH, PA - MAY 07: Evgeny Kuznetsov #92 of the Washington Capitals celebrates his overtime goal against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game Six of the Eastern Conference Second Round during the 2018 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at PPG Paints Arena on May 7, 2018 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Joe Sargent/NHLI via Getty Images)
PITTSBURGH, PA - MAY 07: Evgeny Kuznetsov #92 of the Washington Capitals celebrates his overtime goal against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game Six of the Eastern Conference Second Round during the 2018 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at PPG Paints Arena on May 7, 2018 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Joe Sargent/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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The Washington Capitals’ first-round series against the Carolina Hurricanes is tied 3-3 and headed to a Game 7. There is no other time but now for Evgeny Kuznetsov to rise to the occasion.

This series, which some pundits said was supposed to be a cake-walk for the Washington Capitals, has been anything but. The Hurricanes are proving to be too fast and too aggressive for Washington to match on certain nights. This was the case in last night’s Game 6.

Carolina dominated the shots, the possession times and, of course, the scoring for most of the game. Washington needs to tweak more than a few things if they want to live to see the second round for the 5th-consecutive year, and one of those main tweaks is the play of Evgeny Kuznetsov.

Kuznetsov is a dynamic centre who can handle the puck unlike most in the league can. He is one of the most creative players in the game and has a knack for the theatrical. He can enter the offensive zone like few can and is a dynamo at setting up the Caps’ first powerplay unit.

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However, we have seen none of this from Kuznetsov this series. He lacks the confidence that is has become synonymous with Kuznetsov. He is having trouble entering the zone on power plays which is something I have never seen in my years of watching him play.

Washington not being able to get in and set up makes their power play almost irrelevant. They were hardly even able to get a shot off last night. Special teams are very important, and Kuznetsov is a very important piece to Washington’s special teams so if he is not on his game, it impacts the entire club’s special teams performance.

Kuznetsov (also known as Kuzy) has no goals this series. Granted, he isn’t so much known for his goal-scoring abilities but more so for his ability to feed the puck to people with goal-scoring abilities. However, Kuzy can score. We have seen him do it and we have seen him do it in the playoffs.

Last postseason Kuznetsov finished with 12 goals in 24 games. Although Kuznetsov has a pass-first mentality, he needs to start getting pucks on net because he is a deadly-accurate shooter. This would help with him getting on the board as well as getting the Capitals’ shooting totals up in general which have been extremely low against the defensive Carolina squad.

This also goes back to the special teams argument. If Kuznetsov decides to shoot more it creates more of a threat on the power play because teams will have to respect Kuzy as a shooter which allows for Alex Ovechkin to have more open ice. With the vision and ability of Kuznetsov, it is not impossible to think he would be able to get a puck cross-ice for a patented Ovechkin one-timer.

An obvious point but one that needs to be made nonetheless is simply Kuznetsov’s postseason performance last spring. He led the team, and the league in playoff points with 32 points in 24 games. If they played the same amount of playoff games this season, he would only be on pace for 20 points in those 24 games. An extreme drop-off from last year’s dominance.

He was a leader on the club and did his leading by example which is something we have yet to see from him thus far. Kuzy needs to get back to that level of dominance, or at least somewhere close to it, if Washington wants to really go deep into the playoffs. Secondary scoring is coming around now but not at the pace it needs to be compared to last spring. Nicklas Backstrom and Ovechkin are doing their part and Kuznetsov needs to do his and lessen the load on Backstrom and Ovi.

Next. Capitals Fall in Game 6. dark

It is not too late for Kuznetsov to catch fire. Game 7 would be the perfect time for him to break out of his shell and help the team progress to the second round. We will find out on Wednesday whether this bird will hatch or not.

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