Evgeny Kuznetsov
Evgeny Kuznetsov officially finishes with the third star of the game while he’s the second star on our list. He had another excellent game with a goal and an assist for two points.
Kuznetsov finished with a +1, two shots on goal, a giveaway while winning 23% of his face-offs in 20:18 minutes of ice time. Kuznetsov was on the ice for the second longest on the power play for a total of 4:10.
After the Caps went up 1-0 thanks to Richard Panik, Evgeny Kuznetsov doubled Washington’s lead after they went on the power play. It came when Sebastian Aho was called for interference on Garnet Hathaway, putting Washington on the man advantage.
While quarterbacking the attack, John Carlson faked a shot. Instead it was a pass right to Kuznetsov who was planted by the net. Kuznetsov tapped it in to give the Capitals a 2-0 lead.
Tap tap taperoo. #ALLCAPS #CapsCanes pic.twitter.com/kY4IjbwFFV
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) January 4, 2020
Kuznetsov told Mike Vogel of WashingtonCaps.com:
"“I feel like they got pretty good looks early in the first period. But then we kind of controlled the game. I think that the breakaway when we were on the power play and Sammy stopped the breakaway, and we got a goal right away gave us some energy.”"
Later on, Kuznetsov assisted on Jakub Vrana’s goal putting the Caps in the driver’s seat while the next guy we’ll mention handled the rest.