Alex Semin Enshrined in DCO Hall of Fame

What does it take to bring a blog out of its posting slumber? How about a Sovetsky Sports interview with Alexander Semin, brought to us by the Puck Daddy blog? About halfway in to this Q and A session with rising Capitals’ star only now catching NHL-wide attention, a question is posed regarding Semin’s place in the Ovechkin/Crosby/Malkin rivalry, asking Alex S. where exactly he fits in with this trifecta.

What a nice little middle-of-the-interview softball question. It’s the perfect opportunity to throw about some Mary-Worth-worthy platitudes, stuff like “It’s just an honor to be mentioned with those guys” or “I don’t think I’m quite there yet” or any manner of throwaway compliment to Sid's "vision", etc. But Alex knows what he has to do, what must be done. Risking the wrath of every darling-loving NHL analyst and Wheeling-dwelling Pens fan, he states: “What’s so special about Crosby? I don’t see anything special there.”

THANK YOU.

After these two sentences, we have no choice but to admit Alexander Semin to the DCO Hall of Fame. He will become Co-Director of the re-christened Stevenson-Semin Accurate Player Assessment Wing. As we all know, the Wizards’ Deshawn Stevenson gained admittance to the DCO HOF last March with his similarly establishment-bucking comments on the Sidney Crosby of the NBA, Lebron James. His hype-defying analysis was enough to garner him a wing of the DCO named in his honor. Today, Semin shares in that honor for the brave Russian’s own calling out of a Chosen One.

But wait, Semin didn’t stop with just those two sentences? He went on? Take a gander at this:

“I think that if you take any player, even if he is "dead wood," and start promoting him, you'll get a star. Especially if he scores 100 points. No one is going to care about anyone else. No one is going to care whether he possesses great skill. Let's say you put someone in front of the net and let him deflect pucks in, and he scored 50 goals; everyone will say "Wow!" and then hand him a $10 million per year contract. That's what they like here. “

Sounds familiar, no? Take a player, christen him “The Next One”, promote the living hell out of him, convince the more highly impressionable amongst us that he’s “the face of the NHL”, and bam, star. Semin’s seemingly rare ability to see through such nonsense will be of great value to the Accurate Player Assessment Wing. Perhaps Stevenson and Semin can combine forces to encourage some brave soul within the NFL ranks to follow suit and declare Tony Romo to not be one of the greatest quarterbacks in history. Perhaps this individual will defy the Peter Kings of this world to find the Dallas quarterback not divine, and in fact quite prone to the turnover and completely addicted to the playoff-game-blowing play. Deshawn paved the road for such brave whistle-blowers. Alex has followed. Who’s next? The DCO HOF awaits.

An Audience With The Master. A Victory. First Place In Sight

The Optimilitia descended upon Verizon Center last night, eager to see another effortless Capitals victory over the Senators. We were also eager to seek out our inspiration, the Master of ‘Tism himself, Manny Acta, who brought his ever-smiling positivity to the lower concourse before gametime. We arrived at the Nationals’ meet-and-greet table just before the cutoff time of 7:00 PM to find DCO Hall of Famer John Lannan and future rotation cornerstone Jason Bergmann, but…no Manny. We greeted the pitchers, with Bobtimist Prime exhorting Lannan to continue plunking Phillies, though all the while we feared our audience with ChairManny was in jeopardy.

Then, like a Nationals’ (or Capitals’) surge out of last place, Manny came out of nowhere. We only briefly chatted with the good manager, but it was long enough for Manny to declare he was a “sucker” for optimism (was there any doubt?) and to yet again confirm our not-quite-blind faith in The Plan and to perhaps also rekindle our disgust at the Ovechkin-All-Star-game-like snub Manny endured in November.

Bolstered by our encounter with the DC area’s font of optimism, it was time for the inevitable Caps’ victory and sweep of Ottawa, which must have disappointed/enraged all of Ottawa, possibly Don Cherry, and very definitely the blathering Senators’ fan sitting behind us, who early in the contest profanely cajoled Brent Johnson to get off the ice after being run in to.

It’s amazing how the result of a game between a supposed bottom-rung team and a supposed conference powerhouse can never seem in doubt. Even as Ottawa scored two unanswered goals to take a 2-1 lead, there was never a sense that the Capitals would not come back. The overwhelmingly competent and encouraging tutelage of Bruce II will do that to a team. And what better player to start the turnaround than Alex Semin, the latest recipient of a press-conference-call-out from the motivating coach. If Semin took some heat for contributing to the downfall vs. Philly, he should (and has) take a lot of credit for this all-important win, especially in light of his undressing/posterizing/all-out-humiliating of Wade Redden and Ray Emrey to net the game-tying goal. At the very least, his series of moves deserved better than the bland AP recap, which declared that Semin tied the game by “intercepting a pass, driving down the right wing and lifting a shot over Emery.” Ooohhhh, it’s like I’m there all over again. (Disclaimer: DCO does not claim to have a monopoly on moving, ethereal prose. We just find the description of this momentous and game-changing goal to be woefully underwhelming).

Standings: I’m as shocked as anyone to find the Atlanta Thrashers in first place in the Southeast. The last time I really thought about them, they were in the thralls of a tailspin after that whole “new coach euphoria” wore off (note: the same does not appear to be happening here, nor do we expect it to ever happen). But good for those Thrashers: well on their way to defending that division title that so inspired them into a first-round sweep last year.

The Caps trail those mighty Thrashers by five points; ditto the distance to the clinging-to-a-first-place tie Hurricanes. With games in hand against both clubs, and with softies Edmonton and Florida on the docket, the Caps can easily polish off this homestand with eight out of ten points and be directly competing for the division lead by Monday when it’s time to go to Pittsburgh. It’s almost set up too perfectly: a win in Pittsburgh could conceivably give the Caps the division lead if all goes according to plan. Too perfect. Like Viktor Kozlov’s cross-ice power play pass to Mike Green for a score was too perfect (and how about that Pepco Energy Services Power Play last night? Clicking).

Just think: a week from this very moment we could be talking about a first-place Capitals team. It's a long way from November 21, isn't it?

Alex S. on the Rise

Instead of dwelling on the unpleasant business of a 5-2 loss to the Canadiens (still only the third regulation loss of the month, the same count as those critically acclaimed New Jersey Devils and Buffalo Sabres, fewer than those critically worshipped Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Underachievers Rangers), let’s look at the subtle re-emergence of Alexander Semin these past few games. It’s an emergence that could well lead (back) to multiple-goal games and another 30-goal season pace. Even if a pesky ankle won’t allow for the putting up of the nearly gaudy numbers we saw last season, we could still yet see renewed prowess from the (other) young Russian, bringing about that much-discussed secondary scoring threat that is needed to take some opposing defensive pressure off of Alex Ovechkin.

We’re in the midst of a grand Semin point-scoring streak here. Three games, three points (2G, 1A). Modest, perhaps, but nonetheless something to celebrate from a player of 70-point potential who has been slowed by the aforementioned annoying joint for the entire season. Another possible contributing factor: the annoyance Semin must feel towards EA Sports, for the fact that they still cannot pronounce his name correctly in their otherwise ever-improving line of NHL video games. No doubt that Brooks “Lack” Laich can relate to this injustice.

Tonight’s game is perhaps more important than a late-December game vs. the Islanders should be, but regardless it’s a win the Caps need to continue to gain ground in the East. We feel good about this one, though, because if there has been one constant in Bruce II’s brief interim reign, it’s that the teams rebounds nicely from lackluster efforts and bad losses.

A Loss, But Third Period Could Bring Us Hope

Revised stats: Alexander Semin has still played in 100% of the games with DCO in attendance, yet the Caps have now only won 50% of such contests. The former point is the one we will concentrate on now, because for a short while it seemed that the return of Semin (and a fully healthy team) would (and still could) save the Capitals’ season.

Semin looked good off the bat, sending a crisp cross-ice pass to Matt Pettinger for an almost-quality chance on his first shift. The early good times continued (much like the early season) with an impressive Niklas Backstrom scrum-inducing drive to the net that also very nearly developed into multiple scoring chances.

On numerous occasions, Semin looked utterly unencumbered by the former ankle injury, lending credence to the Coach Hanlon decree that Semin was 100% healthy. After some vintage Alex Ovechkin ice-dancing through multiple defenders drew a penalty, Semin’s body-torquing kept the puck in the offensive zone. Happy memories of early October were again ushered in as there was consistent pressure on the power play.

Semin’s ice time was listed as 5:28 for the first period, though during the intermission Bobtimist Prime and I commented to each other that it seemed closer to 7 or 8 minutes. Maybe it was his constant presence around the puck and time logged on the power play that made it seem longer, or maybe just our complete lack of sense for time.

The penalty kill, also heralded in those glory days of yore (remember 12-for12?) came through in a timely fashion. Brooks Laich, undeterred by two closing defensemen, calmly settled a misbehaving puck and shot a bouncing wrister into the net for a shorty. It was to be the last positive moment for quite a while.

As anyone who was at the game or who saw the game knows, things started getting…restless towards the end of the second period. Chants of “Fire Hanlon”, at first as disorganized as each Caps rush up the ice, gradually grew in intensity. Just moments after more masterful Semin dekes, spins, and offensive creations almost resulted in a Caps goal, and just a few more moments after Kolzig’s heroic stand on a 3-on-2 Panthers break kept the Caps within 1, Florida struck and the fans’ brimming frustration poured out.

The chants found some organization and coherence during the first several minutes of the third period as the Caps struggled to find theirs, reaching a crescendo when the Panthers went up 4-1. But when Semin struck on a superbly sublime deflection at 8:14, it momentarily silenced the optimism-haters and brought us the most intense and inspired Capitals play in weeks.

The next Caps goal seemed inevitable, and one member of DCO was heard to mention to the other that perhaps Semin had saved the season with a slice of his stick through the air. Chris Clark brought that closer to reality with his power play goal. That gave the Caps two goals in the third period from key players who have been injured for significant stretches this season, and it seemed that, at last, with everyone together and the brief, awkward, 2-and-a-half period re-getting-to-know-you phase was over and the team could get down to business, tie the game, and win.

It didn’t happen, but the bigger question would be: can it still happen? Can they build on the third period play that was sparked by Semin’s goal, a goal that came as Caps fans all throughout Verizon Center were ready to turn on the team in a fashion unseen since the end of the Cassidy/Jagr era.

It was, to say the very least, a sullen Caps locker room afterwards. Several questions referenced the late third period spark the team finally found, and while the players seemed to be burdened by the immediacy of another loss, that half a period is something they can (must?) build on starting Wednesday if a true revival is to begin.

Last week we implored the Redskins to look to the Capitals and their shocking road win in Ottawa as precedence for shocking the Cowboys on the road. That didn’t quite work out, but now the two teams are in curiously similar situations. Both are seemingly reeling, but both are also coming off of losses that contained potentially inspiring late-game near-comebacks.

We’ll have more tomorrow, including why we still cannot join the burgeoning Fire Hanlon bandwagon.