- Evgeny Kuznetsov turned up on the KHL’s ref cam during his Sibir Novosibirsk debut
- He moved himself out of the shot mid-conversation with referee Anton Gofman
- Read below for video of the exchange and what Kuznetsov said after the game
Evgeny Kuznetsov knew where the camera was. He just did not want it pointed at him.
The KHL wires its referees for sound and cuts the audio into a video series, and Kuznetsov landed in the newest one during his Sibir Novosibirsk debut in Kazan. Referee Anton Gofman asked him about a collision in front of the net. Kuznetsov answered by shuffling a few feet sideways.
“Let me stand off to the side so they can’t see us,” he said, in footage translated by RMNB.
Watch the full video of the exchange:
From there it was Kuznetsov building his case. He opened with “I was told not to talk to you guys,” then argued that Ak Bars forward Alexey Byvaltsev had shoved him into goaltender Maxim Arefyev.
Gofman told him not to escalate things. Kuznetsov gave him a shrug of an answer: “It’s all good. Yeah, I know.”
This is a habit by now. A Spartak-SKA game in October 2024 put Kuznetsov in front of the same microphone, and he tried the direct approach that night, asking the official on the ice, “Can I talk to you without the camera?” The two of them ended up sorting it out privately during the first intermission.
Here is that 2024 episode:
Kuznetsov was asked after the game to compare his new room to his old ones at Metallurg Magnitogorsk and Salavat Yulaev, and his answer explained a lot about why he keeps ducking cameras.
“I am not going to compare. But like I said, a lot of nice things were said about me before I signed and during, so I am honestly out of my element, because all they do is praise me,” the 34-year-old told Sports.ru, in comments translated from Russian. “They only say good things, and I am used to getting squeezed and pressured, and to always being the one at fault.”
He also said he has stopped using his phone in the dressing room and has been thinking about going back to a button phone, because the smartphone has worn him out.
Sibir lost the opener 4-3 in a shootout. Kuznetsov’s goal in that game was his 100th in the KHL, scored while he was fighting off rotavirus and skating on a teammate’s blades.
Russian hockey is going to keep miking up its officials. Kuznetsov is going to keep hunting for the blind spot.
