sometimes you just look at each other

The Capitals’ locker room is a mini-United Nations. English is the common language, but you are just as likely to hear roaring conversations in Russian or Swedish. Such is life on the NHL’s most diverse roster. The Capitals have players born in eight different countries. Only one NHL team, the Columbus Blue Jackets, has more. They have nine. The variety of backgrounds can make team bonding a little more challenging…

But Kuznetsov is far from closed off with teammates. He claims fluency in French, studied some German in school and has been to that country seven times for vacation or medical procedures. He and Grubauer will sometimes go back and forth in German, which is a plus for the goalie because there are no other Germans on the team and only eight in the NHL….

“It’s awesome here, though,” Grubauer said. “The Swedes chirp the Russians and the other way around. It’s pretty hilarious how [Kuznetsov] speaks German. But he actually knows a lot of languages. Once in a while we’ll chat in [German] – just not on the ice.”

Vrana, 22, is the youngest player on the team and, until Jerabek and Kempny were added via separate trades the last week of February, he was the only Czech for most of the season. But he might navigate the different nationalities best. Vrana started playing hockey in Sweden at age 15. His English is flawless. Czech has enough similarities to Russian that Vrana gets the gist of whatever Ovechkin, Kuznetsov and Orlov are laughing about.

“I’m kind of all over the locker room,” Vrana joked.

That’s drawn suspicion from teammates.

“[Vrana] is sneaky. He knows what everyone’s saying,” Oshie said. “That’s the one guy that if you needed to know what was going on you could go to him, which for a young guy is pretty surprising. He’s got a lot of us fooled, but I think we’re catching on to him.”

Ironically, the one player who could chat with Vrana in his own language before the other Czechs arrived was Walker, the Australian who moved to the Czech Republic at age 13 and played six seasons of junior and professional hockey there.

“If you weren’t born in Czech or spend a long time there, good luck with it,” Vrana said. “If they want me to speak Swedish I can do that. Maybe sometimes they just too lazy to speak English. I’m lazy to speak English too sometimes. Then I just speak Czech to myself.”

Kuznetsov is convinced Trotz actually knows what the Russians are saying at all times – possibly because the coach’s oldest son, Tyson, lives and teaches in Russia. They’ve also taught Burakovsky, among others, some “not so nice words.” Beagle and Oshie both described Kuznetsov’s laugh as “weird” – a high-pitched giggle that becomes infectious even when they have no idea what he’s talking about.

Thank you for everything dear Basti, thank you for amazing 500 matches. it was a pleasure to watch you as our player. best of luck in the future! you’ll be missed!