Wednesday night, Evgeny Kuznetsov was back on Washington Capitals ice for perhaps the first time since late January of the NHL’s 2023-24 season. The 2018 Stanley Cup champion center played beer league hockey at MedStar Capitals Iceplex, shocking other local players who took the ice.
Wearing a number 92 jersey of his former KHL team, Traktor Chelyabinsk, Kuznetsov played up the middle and showed off his unbelievable skating despite mostly gliding and only going a quarter of his top speed.
“Oh my god,” said one player watching Kuznetsov as he went on a rush down the ice and scored easily. “Jesus Christ.”
Kuznetsov, per MedStar Capitals Iceplex’s adult league website, suited up for the Moose in an MCIAHL – Lower B game that began at 8:53 pm. The Moose, wearing white jerseys, defeated the Chiefs (black jerseys) 9-4, getting two goals and a primary assist from the two-time NHL All-Star.
Kuznetsov scored his first tally with 3:45 remaining in the first period to put the Moose up 3-2. He later scored a power-play goal in the third period with 4:37 left in regulation to put the home team up 8-4. The Moose would improve their record to 11-4-0 with the victory.
Josh Williams, a 24-year-old goalie for the Lower B team, the Beavers, and a lifelong Capitals fan, began playing a game on the other rink 10 minutes before the start of Kuznetsov’s. He and his Beavers teammates then caught the end of Kuzy’s matchup after hearing excited chatter around the rink about the former Caps star being there.
“It’s unclear how or why he ended up playing,” Williams said to RMNB. “Like we don’t know his connection to the Moose or if he knew anybody on that team.”
Williams added, “What my teammates and I were trying to decide was, what is the equivalent of Kuzy coming down to our level. We were pretty sure that would be like one of our better players playing against a middle school team. And the league we’re in is Lower B but it’s mostly guys with club college hockey experience, people who played AA and AAA in the DMV area growing up. It’s a pretty talented league, but he made them look like bantams. I doubt he broke a sweat.”
The goaltender also wanted to be clear that he was more pumping Kuznetsov’s tires than giving any shade to the Chiefs — one of the best teams in the league.
“The Chiefs scored 10 on me in a 10-1 game vs my Beavers,” he said. “Just throwing that out there so I don’t come off as talking down the Chiefs.”
(Mental note: The Chiefs are really good: got it.)
“To see Kuzy popping by in our league is super special because he’s responsible for some of, if not the greatest, hockey memories for all of us,” Williams said. “A bunch of young adults and grown men, some with wives and kids, were transported back to 2018 just for a brief moment when Kuzy scored tonight.”
Kuznetsov returned to North America earlier this summer after mutually terminating his contract with SKA Saint Petersburg this past April. The 33-year-old forward is looking for an NHL contract after playing the 2024-25 season with in Russia. Kuznetsov posted 37 points (12g, 25a) in 39 games with SKA, suiting up frequently on the same line as Montreal Canadiens’ super rookie Ivan Demidov.
Kuznetsov was first spotted back in the DC area in June after spending time with former Capitals teammate Alex Alexeyev. A few weeks later, Kuznetsov took a family trip and threw on Ilya Samsonov’s goalie gear while skating in South Florida.
Wednesday night’s jaunt on the ice was not the first time Kuznetsov’s been spotted playing beer league in the area. In May 2023, Kuznetsov and close friend Dmitry Orlov took part in a rec league game at SkateQuest in Reston, Virginia shortly after the first round of NHL’s Stanley Cup Playoffs ended.
Evgeny Kuznetsov and Dmitry Orlov hit beer league circuit in DC with NHL seasons over
Kuzy wasn’t the only NHL star to take the ice in beer league action on Wednesday night. Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl were spotted playing with mere mortals at a Newmarket, Ontario ice rink as well.
Unlike Kuznetsov, however, they lost their beer-league game.