Evgeny Kuznetsov: Why Is He A Capitals Fan Favorite?
Lets just be real for a second here.
If you’re a great player you have a much better chance at being a fan favorite for a franchise or fan base. If you’re one of the top two or three players on a team, odds are you are probably widely loved by the fans and now considered a fan favorite.
That doesn’t mean you HAVE to be a top player. Look no further than D.C. when talking about a lower line player being loved. Jay Beagle. Nothing more than a fourth liner. He was loved by the fans, and rightly so. You could also point to the entire fourth line of the Capitals right now, although not as loved individually as Mr. Beagle was.
Still, the fan favorites usually are reserved for top players. That’s what Evgeny Kuznetsov is. A top player for this Washington Capitals team and in my opinion, if he wanted to be, a top player in the entire National Hockey League.
If Kuznetsov wasn’t a top player would he be a fan favorite? If he did everything he does now but isn’t nearly a point per game player is he as loved as he is? It’s hard to say. It’s really hard to throw everything out of your memory box and give honest answers like that.
What else makes Kuznetsov a fan favorite? Well, I guess we can take a look at a couple of things.
Talent
This goes hand and hand with being able to score a bunch of points, but it is different. There are plenty of players across the world and in the NHL that have talent. There are very few people who are able to turn that talent into being a top players in the world. Again, it’s usually those guys that turn into the fan favorites, The Ovechkin’s, the Backstrom’s, the Kuznetsov’s of the world.
It’s incredibly fun to watch these players. They can make something happen every single shift and really at any time.
I can only speak for myself here, but there is one play that I rarely, if ever saw happen. That is the play when Kuznetsov is going nearly full speed, going around the net with the puck, the goalie follows him to the far post, then Kuznetsov drops a pass behind him to a teammate at the near post for a layup.
Like I said, I rarely saw that play happen in the NHL, after he did it several times, and several times successfully I started seeing a lot of players doing that play, to mixed results. Again, maybe I’m just blind and missed that play happening all the time but he seemed to be the first to do it successfully a lot.
It speaks to his talent in the game of hockey. I’m not going to sit here and bore you. If you want proof of Evgeny Kuznetsov’s talent go to YouTube and look up his highlights. If you’re reading this though you probably don’t need to do that. You know how talented this guy is. That’s a big reason he’s a fan favorite, he’s…
Fun To Watch
See what I did there? There are a ton of players who are talented but can be really frustrating to watch. They have all the talent in the world but can’t quite put it all together. Now, believe me, Kuznetsov can fall into that frustrating category. Like I said, I think he can be a top player in this league if he gave it 110% every night. There are too many nights that he goes unnoticed which is why I can’t call him one of the best.
But on top of his talent and point producing ability he’s just a fun player to watch and follow. He looks like he’s having fun out there, which unfortunately doesn’t always look to be the case with some players. You forget it’s a game sometimes.
Take one of the very recent examples from Kuznetsov. Sunday vs the Penguins the Capitals had too many men on the ice, he tried to get off the ice fast, so he hops on the Pens bench. He’s not the first person to do that, likely won’t be the last, but it’s that kind of personality that’s easy to get behind.
The kind of guy who looks for a fist bump from his own teammate, gets left hanging and decides to fist bump himself. No one wants to get left hanging. All you have to do though is put your hand down and ignore that you got ignored. But nope, He congratulates himself and we can all have a laugh.
Sports are supposed to be fun. We all get caught up in championships and how many have you won? Is this guy clutch or a choker? Bottom line, sports is just another form of entertainment, there is a time to be serious about them, but mostly, sit back and have fun watching.
Kuznetsov is fun to watch. In a form of entertainment, what more could you want? It’s just another reason he’s a fan favorite in the nation’s capital.
Unfiltered
You could probably lump this in with fun to watch but I decided to make this another category. All the examples we just talked about was on ice stuff. He’s fun to watch because of his talent, his scoring ability and the funny stuff he does on the ice.
He also does fun and funny stuff off the ice that can be a reason he’s a fan favorite. You’re not supposed to swear or curse during post or pregame interviews. I’m sure he knows that by now, and he still does it. They’re words that will catch you off guard and make you laugh when it happens.
He’s honest, maybe too honest sometimes. He’s spoken out how much he doesn’t like the NHL’s dress code and his desires to not wear suits. Or how he doesn’t like the Capital One Arena’s ice. You can check out this article here via Sports Illustrated to go more in depth on Kuznetsov’s off ice personality because there is too much for me to cover here.
For me, it’s easy to get behind people like this. You know they’re honest. They don’t give you boring, rehashed and cliche answers. It’s a lot more fun to follows these types of players. The NHL need more guys like Kuznetsov. He’s a fan favorite for a reason.
The Bird
Celebrating for whatever reason does not do well in some sports, like baseball and hockey. You flip your bat in baseball you’re getting beaned during your next at bat. You celebrate too big in hockey you’ll get called out by the old talking heads like Don Cherry.
If you celebrate in a way that ticks off other players you’ll get mocked or have that celebration thrown right back at you. Like the Columbus Blue Jackets did last year.
You can say what you want about the celebration itself. I personally think it looks weird and prefer he didn’t do it, but I didn’t score that big goal, do what you want. His daughter apparently loves when he does it, then do it. Kuznetsov has his priorities in order there. His family likes it, I’m sure he team loves it and the Capitals fans love it. That’s all that matters. It’s just another reason he’s loved in D.C.
“The Demons Have Been Exorcised”
Winning the Stanley Cup will force your way into the memory of the fans forever. Still, you might forget some names after a while or just flat out forget someone for random reasons. I doubt anybody will be forgetting the name Kuznetsov thanks to this moment.
You can talk all you want about winning the Stanley Cup, that’s obviously the biggest thing you can do in this sport. But that moment possibly doesn’t happen without Kuznetsov’s overtime winner vs. the Penguins.
The Capitals could not get past the second round during the Ovechkin era and maybe even worse than that fact is they couldn’t get past their arch rival Penguins. That changed in the matter of seconds thanks to number 92.
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Winning the Cup is the best memory, but this has to be a close second for nearly every Capitals fan out there. It’s one of the biggest moments of the franchise and it’s a big reason he’s a Washington Capitals fan favorite.