Now in his fourth full season with the Capitals, Kuznetsov’s creativity no longer catches teammates off-guard. “I mean, he still amazes me, and all the guys, all the time,” Orpik says, “but I’m not surprised, just based on his personality. He doesn’t care what people think of him and he’s a pretty free spirit, so his imagination is top-notch.”

Sometimes it leads him to celebrate like a bird; other times to dipsy doodle and perhaps squander a chance — or cash one with added flair. In late March, against New York, Kuznetsov was behind the net when he noticed that Rangers goalie Ondrej Pavelec had left a top corner open. He picked up the puck on his blade and attempted a lacrosse goal, lifting it in the air and trying to stuff it into the corner. He just missed. “We told him that would have been so sick if he scored that way,” says a grinning Smith-Pelly, ahead of Game 4 against Pittsburgh. “I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if he did it tonight. That’s just him: He’s super creative, and he’s so good that he can try things in games that me, personally, I would never, ever try.”

Those opportunities for creativity are what make hockey fun for Kuznetsov. The six-foot-two, 204-pounder with the short blonde hair and the well-maintained playoff scruff is thankful that his creativity was welcomed from the get-go in Washington. “Sometimes young guys come to the team and they scared to try anything because they think if they gonna make mistake, they gonna get sent back and never get a chance to play in NHL again,” he says, dressed in a sweaty grey Capitals t-shirt, shorts and long white tube socks after a morning skate in Washington. “It can be hard. I’m really lucky when I come here, they let me do a lot of good stuff. Thank God it’s all working, you know?”

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Part of his creativity involves studying opponents. “You don’t have to be shy — look for them, what they trying to do and try to do the same thing, even if they 18 or 20 years old, it doesn’t matter. Or, it’s Sidney Crosby, it doesn’t matter. You have to learn from those guys still,” Kuznetsov says.

“I’ve never been the big scorer guy,” he continues. “I can trade couple nice passes [and an] unbelievable goal for zero points for me personally. That’s how I enjoy the game. Sometimes you come after the game into the locker room, you think, ‘Oh, it’s nice, we won 3-1.’ Whatever, it doesn’t matter. If you enjoy the result but you don’t enjoy the game? That’s always bad. You want to enjoy the energy, the mental and other things, good plays.

“You have to think every day: I have to get better because they play better than me. That’s how I think it should be.”