Personality Defined: While we interviewed Evgeny, we noticed he wore white crocs with some stickers on them. Included were NY Yankees, Arizona Cardinals & Spider-Man logos and his number at development camp, 92.

If one player could be said to have stolen the limelight during Caps development camp, it must be Evgeny Kuznetsov.  The first-round draft pick scored a flurry of goals in scrimmages; invoked the ire of that other RMNB crush object, Braden Holtby; met with some Russian-language students from UMD, and even gorged on some cupcakes.  We wanted to pick Evgeny’s brain, but we were stifled by the language barrier.

Luckily, friend-of-the-blog and sage of all things Caps, Oksana Zolotar, helped us out.  In addition to having a truly awesome name, Oksana speaks fluent Russian.  We put the two kids together for a chat following Wednesday’s scrimmage (in which Evgeny went 2G-1A-3P).   Follow us past the jump to hear Evgeny discuss English, his ambitions, and his always cheerful attitude.

Oksana Zolotar: What are your impressions of Washington? America in general?
Evgeny Kuznetsov: Well, this isn’t my first time in America.  I’ve been to America about ten times now, but it’s my first time in Washington. I haven’t been downtown yet, but other than that, I like everything, especially the atmosphere of the team.

[General Manager George McPhee says something congratulatory, but inaudible, to Evgeny. Evgeny nods politely.]

OZ: Are you having trouble with communication?  The English language? How are you handling it?
EK: Yeah, I’m definitely having a lot of trouble. I don’t know the language. I know a little, so I can interact a little bit, translate, so it’s okay for now. I’m just going to study English a bit more before I make the final decision to come here, but that’s not totally up to me.

OZ: When the season’s over, do you relax a little bit in terms of training? Or keep at the same rate?
EK: This year I didn’t even have a chance to go anywhere on vacation because at the end of the season was the World Championship. I rested a little bit, a week, then I had to start training for tests before the draft. After that, I came here and trained in New York, then the draft, and then came here.

Evgeny dominated Wednesday's scrimmage. He had two goals and a primary assist. (Photo by Neil Greenberg)

OZ: What do you think you have to work on to reach the next level? What weaknesses do you have?
EK: I have to work on everything. Mostly I have to gain weight so I can be bigger, to play in the NHL you have to be big. But other than that, I need to work on skating and shooting, and I think it will be okay.

OZ: What about next year? What goals do you have? What plans?
EK: I would be more than happy to come here if they called, of course. But I do have a contract, and I would have to buy it out then, and I don’t have the type of money to buy it out.

OZ: If you were to compare yourself to a famous player, who would it be? Why?
EK: I can’t compare myself to any famous player because he’s already been playing, already accomplished something. I can only say who I admire, who I watch. I watch Malkin, Datsyuk, how they play, and try to do the same.

OZ: What about the Russian guys that are training with you? Did you already know them? Or just meet them here?
EK: [Laughs] Yeah, of course! I’ve known them for a long time! We played together, and always talked when our teams played against each other. But yeah, we’re friends, always keep in touch.

OZ: What about the Russians here? Do you know Ovechkin?
EK: No, I haven’t met anyone. Semin played in Chelyabinsk I remember.  He played when I was little.

We'd be terrible journal-- er... bloggers if we didn't ask Evgeny what was up with this photo.

OZ: Alright Evgeny, we all saw your wonderful photo [shows photo from draft night], tell me …are you always this happy?
EK: [Laughs] Yeah I’m always happy, I think you can even ask the guys on the team, and they’ll tell you that I’m always smiling.
OZ: Oh, I’ve seen it.  Everyone’s seen it.

OZ: Alright, last question.  But honestly, are you disappointed that you didn’t go to the Rangers? [Kuznetsov had said before that he'd prefer to be drafted by NYR.]
EK: Well, I just didn’t think that Washington would choose me because… I mean I’m not going to lie, of course before I wanted to. But when Washington chose me, I realized that it was even better for me because here there are Russians, fantastic coaching. I don’t want to say anything about the Rangers, I don’t have anything against them, but I like it here better, I interact with people, it’s somewhat more pleasant here.

* * *

Extra: Bruce Boudreau’s thoughts on Kuznetsov

“Fantastic” coach Bruce Boudreau sang Kuznetsov’s praises after the scrimmage on Wednesday.  In a chat with WP’s Tarik El-Bashir, Bruce also mentioned the pizazz Evgeny brings to his performance.

Finally, we’d like to thank Oksana Zolotar for her invaluable contribution.  She was a total pro in these interviews, and –oh yeah– Monday is her birthday!  Congratulations, Oksana!  We’ll have her interviews with Dmitri Orlov and Stanislav Galiev later this week.

Scott Wilson takes notes in the Gaza Strip after an Israeli soldier's kidnapping in 2006 (via Facebook)

Two weeks have passed since Russian Machine Never Breaks implored President Obama to attend a Caps game and Barack The Red.  To say we’ve been floored by the reaction would be a total understatement. In the days since our plea, we’ve received nods from Puck Daddy, D.C. Sports Bog, On Frozen Blog, Homer McFanboy, DCist, LaVar Arrington, and even “Uncle” Ted Leonsis himself! Then, 1,244 people joined our Facebook Petition (join now if you haven’t yet),  including Japers Rink, Dmitry Chesnokov and the affable Caps Owner (yes, really)! But to be honest, we were all completely shocked last Friday afternoon, when Scott Wilson, White House Correspondent for The Washington Post, asked the President’s Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, for a response to our open letter.  Joke or not, my letter being read before the White House gaggle was the highlight of my career and a fitting testament to the obscene number of hours Blogadyte Ian Oland has put into site.

It turns out that Scott Wilson is actually a longtime hockey fan and was the perfect person to ask the question.  Scott knows hockey jerseys are “sweaters,” and he attributes his lack of a hockey career to his mother’s fear that he’d end up with Bobby Clarke’s gap-toothed grin.

Scott was kind enough to spare a few minutes with me amidst the chaos in D.C. of late. For a man that has covered disaster, war, and famine, I’d like to think that chatting about hockey for a few minutes was a welcome reprieve and not just a distraction.  For me, it was a lot bigger.

But how did our manifesto get read aloud in the press room of the White House? It only could have happened that Friday: “Robert Gibbs had to pay back his bet to his Canadian counterpart, so he wore the Canadian national team’s hockey sweater to the briefing,” said Wilson. After only a few moments of modeling the red maple leaf for the press corp, Gibbs swapped out for a U.S. jersey, thereby unknowingly inviting the question. After prefacing with a quote from out letter, Wilson asked Gibbs, “Will the President commit to going to a Washington Capitals game this season?”

The Press Secretary must have been in a decent mood that afternoon, as he took the question in good faith. “He took it in the spirit it was meant. I knew he wouldn’t give a firm commitment, but I did get a light, evasive, funny answer,” Wilson observed.

It’s the kind of back-and-forth you can only have at the end of the week, once all the serious business has already been addressed. Before tackling “Barack the Red”, Wilson had asked about the big-ticket items on the Obama agenda: the Citizens United v. FEC Supreme Court decision and pending Wall Street reform. And although we are obligated to mention politics insofar as they collide with hockey, political discourse is strongly discouraged here. (If the morlocks from The Pensblog wander over to RMNB again and  see us talking about medical malpractice tort reform, they’ll get dangerously confused.)

I asked Scott if he’d be willing to follow up with Press Secretary Gibbs about the President attending a game. “If the mood is right, and as we get closer to the playoffs, we’ll see,” was the firmest commitment I could get out of the professional journalist. He even rebuffed my attempted bribe, using a Russian Machine Never Breaks t-shirt as bait. “I could donate the t-shirt to charity maybe,” tactfully responded Wilson. Class act.

We all know President Obama is a big sports fan. “He says that SportsCenter on ESPN is his favorite show,” continued Wilson, “so I wouldn’t be surprised if you got him this year.” When pressed to quantify our chances, Scott went out on a limb.

“65/35. And those numbers go up if they go deep in the playoffs. The town will have Caps fever, and the President will want to plug into that.” Precisely. While we’d obviously prefer POTUS to grow a playoff beard and rock a Weagle necktie throughout the Spring, hopping on the bandwagon at Conference finals would be cool, too. In the end, we all want infinite glory for the home team.

My talk with Wilson ended with sage shifting of responsibility– off of the President and onto the team.  ”More than anything, the Capitals’ success will determine [if the President comes].”

Alright, boys.  It’s all on you now.