Kuznetsov Opens Up About Being Healthy Scratch, Feels New Fire With Capitals: 'It's Sh** But Gotta Accept It... I Want To Succeed Here'

The 31-year-old is ready for redemption and will be back in the mix on Thursday after sitting out Monday as a healthy scratch for the Capitals.

ARLINGTON, V.A. — For Evgeny Kuznetsov, the last 48 hours have been some of the hardest of his career, and it only took one expletive to describe what it was like to be a healthy scratch for the first time since 2021.

"It's shit," he said bluntly.

Kuznetsov was the odd man out for Monday's game against the Arizona Coyotes, with head coach Spencer Carbery hoping it would serve as a mental reset for No. 92, who has been struggling and has just nine points in 19 games to open 2023-24.

For Kuznetsov, it was a difficult pill to swallow. He leads all Capitals forwards in ice time, and the last few seasons in D.C. have not been easy. Washington also lost 6-0 to the Arizona Coyotes without Kuznetsov in the lineup.;

Despite all of that, No. 92 stood by Carbery's decision.

"You gotta accept sometimes and trust the process, and I feel like there is a lot more into it. That was a bad, bad day and bad finish over there, right... for me, probably yes," Kuznetsov said regarding whether he agreed with the scratch. "Lke I said, I love Carbs so much. I trust what he’s doing and he's trying to help me find my game and get better and help the team, because I know that I gotta be better in every areas... I have to play better hockey. That’s the answer."

Getting better in all three zones will be Kuznetsov's focus, but he also stressed the importance of providing the offense that the Capitals, who have scored the least amount of goals in the league this season, desperately need.

“I feel like we’ve been missing those 15-20 points by me, and that’s 20 goals. If we could score those 20 goals, we’d probably be top-10 in the league in regard to scoring, so that’s what we’re missing," Kuznetsov said. "And I understand that. I’m not the guy who’s gonna be making a lot of money and walking around happy when hockey’s not good. I wanna play better, I wanna succeed here and I want my team to celebrate every game.”

While Kuznetsov agreed with the choice, given his inconsistency this season, the scratch did take its toll emotionally. The 31-year-old admitted that it was still fresh and difficult to talk about, especially when he was unable to help the group on Monday.

“That was shit. It's not easy to watch the game or be not with the team or kind of step away one day and unfortunately not able to help the team and especially in that game... I felt bad because I felt like I had to be there and had to help the team better in every areas," he explained.

Not only did Kuznetsov feel individual pressure on himself, but the outside noise that's plagued him the last few seasons started to creep back in, too. Kuznetsov, who has been the center of trade speculation since reports of a trade request and more ups and downs over the last few years in D.C., once again came face-to-face with those rumblings, making the situation harder.

“Yeah, it’s shit. I stay off social media a little bit, but I do have a lot of friends that text me right away and a lot of people did not believe that was the process," Kuznetsov said. "There was a lot of people [saying], ‘What will happen?’ It's, 'Hey, come on, just settle down.' This is the how it is; that’s the reality."

Though the scratch weighs heavy and is still raw for Kuznetsov, it sent the message that Carbery hoped to get: improve, hit reset and come back stronger.

"I feel like I want to kill someone since yesterday, in a good way, you know... probably, I learn something about this later in my career when I'm going to have time to sit back and think about it. But so far, I understand what it was saying. At that point, it's hard to accept, but like I said, I trust him so much," Kuznetsov said. "I want to believe in him, and he want to believe in me. I feel like we have a great relationship, so I kind of understand that I need to be better."

Going into Thursday's game against the Dallas Stars, where Kuznetsov will make his return to the lineup, the Russian said he feels a new fire under him, which he hopes will ignite his game and help with rebuilding his confidence.

"Couple of goals will help probably us. I think individually, we can get confident from team game, right... it helps the team and helps everybody to feel better [when you get something going], but when penalty kill or power play or 5-on-5 or some stuff missing, that's when you get not happy and you start worrying about stuff," Kuznetsov said. "So I feel like we just need a good start and we can do that, like snowball right? But so far it’s been opposite, you know, but good thing we’ve been winning some games and that’s ideology, right? Trade the bad game for the two points.”

And then, of course, there's the desire to silence critics and prove his doubters wrong.

"Those people putting a lot of pressure and a lot of bad words on my name, I’ll pay back one day and use that as a motivation," he smiled.