Dmitry Orlov Reveals Why Evgeny Kuznetsov's Tenure In Washington Ended In Such Bad Fashion
Dmitry Orlov and Evgeny Kuznetsov spent time together in Washington, and now the blueliner has called out Peter Laviolette as to why the relationship ended poorly.
For a long time, the Russian core of the Washington Capitals made up one of the best teams in the NHL, culminating with the iconic 2018 Stanley Cup win led by captain Alex Ovechkin.
Two key pieces of that team were Dmitry Orlov and veteran Evgeny Kuznetsov, who enjoyed playing together for a long time. Now, the former has opened up on the relationship and what happened after such a long stint in Washington.
In an interview, Orlov opened up on the post-2018 Stanley Cup team, revealing his feelings on the hiring of Head Coach Peter Laviolette, who he claims took the joy out of hockey for his veteran teammate.
«But I think the relationship with the coach had an effect. When he trusts you, you see it, and it's very important. But when something worries you and you withdraw into yourself, close yourself off, dig into yourself - it starts to bother you. Especially for such an open guy as Zhenya.»
While he doesn't openly go into what happened between Laviolette and Kuzentsov, he certainly seemed to pin the failures of that team on the Head Coach, who Kuznetsov himself had called out in the past, believing he wasn't the right fit for that team.
You brought a coach who almost didn't fit our style, we had to rebuild.' Such moments as it were. 'You paid me this money for something, right?' I say, 'For what I did well.' And now [he] arrived, they tell me: 'Listen, you don't need to do this - throw the puck into the zone, run, and [screen] the goalie.'
This is where everything went wrong in general because we should each have our own role, everyone should fulfill their role, and everyone will be in demand from this role. And when you carry a piano, and then they say to you: 'No, no, let's play the piano today.' And the person has never played the piano, and they say to him: 'Come on, play!'»
This is where everything went wrong in general because we should each have our own role, everyone should fulfill their role, and everyone will be in demand from this role. And when you carry a piano, and then they say to you: 'No, no, let's play the piano today.' And the person has never played the piano, and they say to him: 'Come on, play!'»
After his play fell off in recent years, Kuzentsov moved home to the KHL this past summer, where he finds himself on a loaded SKA St. Petersburg team that's full of star power.
Given that the New York Rangers have begun to struggle under Laviolette, the timing of this interview is incredibly interesting, and with so much disdain from most of that team towards Laviolette, this comes as absolutely no surprise.
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