WASHINGTON, D.C. -- You think you know you’ve got something -- maybe something special.

If you’re the Washington Capitals, you see a player such as Evgeny Kuznetsov excel at a couple World Junior Championships. You use a first-round pick in 2010 to make him part of your future. Then you wait.

On Thursday night in Washington, the wait was over.

The 22-year-old native of Chelyabinsk, Russia, put on a veritable clinic in the Capitals’ 5-1 trouncing of the New York Islanders in Game 5 of this Eastern Conference first-round playoff series. He scored a crucial, tying goal in the first period (his first NHL playoff point), then added a dazzling, breakaway goal by speeding past a stunned Islander defense and slipping the puck under netminder Jaroslav Halak in the third. He also had an assist on the team’s final goal of the night.

The implications of such a performance are layered and multidimensional.

Obviously, the Capitals’ decisive win revealed some fundamental flaws in an Islanders team that is young up front and breaking down on the back end without veterans Travis Hamonic and Lubomir Visnovsky as they try to handle a big, fast, physical Washington team.

The Capitals chased out Halak, who matched Washington netminder Braden Holtby pretty much save-for-save through the first four games and two periods of this tight series, before being yanked with 11 minutes left in Game 5 after surrendering five goals on 35 shots.

But if the Capitals are going to advance to play the winner of the New York Rangers-Pittsburgh Penguins series, how does Kuznetsov’s evolution change that dynamic?

“Oh, it’s huge. Secondary scoring is huge for us. You can’t rely on Ovi and Backie. Those guys get it done all the time,” Kuznetsov’s linemate, Jason Chimera, said in reference to star teammates Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom.

The two stars, so crucial to the team’s first two wins in the series, were held off the score sheet in Game 5. It didn’t matter.

Kuznetsov, Chimera and Marcus Johansson combined for three of the Capitals’ five goals. Given the way Kuznetsov, who led all players with seven shots on net, moved the puck, created space and found teammates, they could have had three more goals easily.

“From when he first came here last year, he’s night and day, what player that he was," Chimera said. "Both ends of the ice, draws -- he’s clearly good on draws. He’s come so far.

“He’s a pleasure to play with, that’s for sure. He’s a good kid. He wants to learn. He listens more than anybody I know. He’s like a sponge -- he sucks it all in. He basically won the game for us single-handedly tonight.”

Sure, it’s one playoff game. But the poise of the 6-foot, 172-pound center, the willingness to play into traffic to take the puck away from players and then make plays, and the ability to take a hit make you think this is something more.

“He did a great job, handled the pressure, be our best guy out there tonight," Ovechkin said. "We need that performance from everybody. He’s mature enough to be that good. I hope he’s going to keep producing that way.”

What a night such as Thursday does is help replace lingering wonder of "Will it ever happen?" with giddy optimism of "What's next?"

“We saw right from the beginning that he had a ton of skill. But at the same time, he didn’t have the room to make the plays he was normally used to making. You could see that. He would have the puck and chip pucks a lot and stop up and not get any speed, and I think, I don’t know if someone said something to him or smart guy probably figured it out on his own. These things happen quicker, you’ve got to make your decisions quicker, you’ve got to skate, you’ve got to go with speed, you’ve got to be the first forward back in the D-zone at times, you’re going to have to take hits at times,” said defenseman Karl Alzner, who scored the eventual game winner in the second period.

“Once he figured all that out, you can see what he can do. His skill level is so high, and his IQ level is so high, all he needed to do was add a little bit of a grit to that, and now he’s a good player.”

Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan has been watching Kuznetsov for years.

“You could see it building up until now. I thought tonight was his best game he’s played ever here,” MacLellan told ESPN.com.

MacLellan was part of the management team that drafted Kuznetsov with the 26th overall pick in 2010 and then waited, sometimes impatiently, for him to play four more seasons in the Kontinental Hockey League before coming to North America.

“We watched him in Calgary in the World Junior. He was outstanding. He dominated in Buffalo again [at] the World Junior, he dominated there too. And then it’s been a while coming over. I think it took him a long time, the good part of this first half of the year, just to get comfortable with the small rink and strength of players and to play in traffic,” said MacLellan, who took over as GM the past offseason after years as the assistant GM.

“It took him awhile, but now you can tell he’s just feeling it. He’s played good against a physical team, which I think is exciting for us as an organization. He’s going into traffic, he’s making plays, he’s starting to get a lot more confident with the puck, you can tell. Obviously, the game tonight was kind of icing on the cake for him.”

Look around the NHL. Which teams have had Stanley Cup success without depth down the middle? Few to none is the best answer. Historically, there have been questions about the Caps' depth down the middle as it relates to playoff success.

This version of the Caps is as imposing as any in recent memory and maybe ever. If Kuznetsov is the real deal down the middle, he adds another piece to an arsenal that looks poised to make fans in the nation’s capital forget years of playoff disappointment.

“I think it takes a lot of pressure off of Nick Backstrom when you have that one-two punch with him and Nick," MacLellan said. "So Nick doesn’t have to be the best player on the ice for us every night. Kuzy can come in and have a game like he did tonight, and it just adds so much depth to your team, and plus, he makes his two wingers better too.”

Sometimes with the language barrier it’s difficult to determine how a player fits within the team concept.

Sometimes the body language says it all.

After batting the puck out of the air to tie the game in the first period, Kuznetsov raced around the net and feigned shooting an arrow with his stick before slamming into the boards in joy.

“When I score, I hear the loud in the stadium,” Kuznetsov said. "I feel like crazy, and I want to say thanks for coming today, and the game, it’s more loud than the Islanders’ game. I hope we see it in next round."

But if you were expecting any insight into his breakout game beyond a little Hawkeye mode on the ice, you would have been disappointed.

Did he feel such a breakout game coming?

“Hard to say," Kuznetsov said. "Everybody wants to score the goal and do the assist, but if you do the right things, stay on the plan, the goals and the passes and the Cups come. One guy never win the Cup -- only whole team win the Cup."

“I feel well when we win the game. That’s all I understand. I never talk about my game.”

On nights such as Thursday, all that needed to be said by Evgeny Kuznetsov was said on the ice.