When last Evgeny Kuznetsov was seen skating off the ice, the enigmatic Russian center was closing a troubled 2021 season as an almost invisible member of the Washington Capitals.
The 2021-2022 season is starting much differently.
Fresh off a solid first two games, Kuznetsov scored two goals in a 6-3 victory over the Colorado Avalanche.
The win moves the Caps record to 2-0-1 on the young season as the team prepares for its first road trip of the year.
“Today was our best game of the three, and that’ll be huge going on to the road here,” said defenseman Nic Jensen.
Kuznetsov opened the scoring with his first goal of the season at the 6:15 mark of the first period off a long pass from John Carlson. Seven minutes later, Kuznetsov would help Colorado tie the score as J.T. Compher forced a turnover on a power play and beat Ilya Samsonov for a short-handed goal to tie the game at one.
In the past, that mistake might have doomed the Russian center for the rest of the night, Kuznetsov said this year, that will not be the case.
“The confidence always comes from the coaches and teammates, and I feel like I have a great relationship with the coaches and teammates,” he said. “That mistake I made on the powerplay, they didn’t even have to say anything to me because there was a trust, and I appreciate it.”
Nic Jensen gave the Capitals the lead again as he led an odd-man rush with Alex Ovechkin and Dimitri Orlov. Instead of passing to the man who is currently 5th on the all-time goals list, he shot, beating Avs goalie Darcy Kuemper.
“I knew it was there,” Jensen said. “I mean three on one, I knew I was getting a shot so, I feel like I was in a pretty good position to at least throw it on net… It’s not often I’m passing off passes to No. 8. If would have missed the net, I don’t think he would have been too happy,” he joked after the game.
After Colorado tied the game at two early in the second period, Anthony Mantha gave the Capitals the lead for good, scoring his first goal of the year and the 100th of his career.
“Huge. I mean, we talked about it in the preseason to just kind of getting the confidence up, and seeing it hit the back of the net felt great,” Mantha said after the game.
Kuznetsov’s second goal and a score by Nic Dowd to start the third period stretched the lead to 5-2. Colorado cut the lead to 5-3 late in the third before Ovechkin put the game away for good with an empty-net goal at the 17:39 mark of the third period.
“I think at times, yeah, we played really well we executed a lot of things we had a lot of shot attempts a lot of shots,” Dowd said.
The Capitals play their first road game of the year Thursday against the New Jersey Devils.