For those of you who were at the Verizon Center last night, it was a great game to watch.
I am proud of the team for being so committed and gritty; winning in a shootout; and playing without 45 minutes of first line players, Alex Ovechkin and Tom Poti, in the lineup.
And how about Alex Semin last night? A goal; a goal in the shootout; a great assist on the short-handed goal scored; and he led the team in short-handed ice time. And he now leads the entire NHL in scoring. He looked like a leader on the ice last night which was so great to see. As you all know, I have been an advocate of his skills and talents for a long time.
What ever happened to the message boards on “Alex Semin: Jump into a volcano”? Will that person who started that thread please email me and say hello? 
Thank you.
Didn’t see the match either (was flying back to the States from Europe at the time) and of course I wouldn’t have stayed for the shoot-out…but if we are to make a serious playoff run we need (1) top-drawer goalkeeping and (2) second-line offence. If Semin can provide this kind of consistent second-line scoring (especially in away matches when we won’t have last line change), the Caps will make some serious noise this coming post-season.
We’re with you on this one, Ted. Felt the same way about Semin for the last few years, was just missing a key to unlock the door hiding all that pent up talent. Only a guess, but we’ll give Federov credit for the assist on this one. Nice move to bring him (Feds)aboard- maturity and focus from years in the game, a mentoring skill from a peer goes a long way in the locker room.
I think you all are overreacting a little. Sure, I hated not being able to watch the Preds game last night. But there are only 3 Caps games not on TV this year due to Versus and their dumb rule. 3 out of 82. That isn’t all that bad. We get to watch 79 of 82 games.
Oh Ted the Volcano is SOOOOOO 2007-2008!!! We have moved on to the kick in the Babymaker! LOL!
And I completely agree on Semin, he is amazing to watch and I am SO proud of how he has finally got his act together. There are several of us on the boards (IHTP, SSM12, myself and several others) who have defended him (and criticized him when warranted) through the bad times, because we saw his potential greatness and knew he had it in him. Who knew that a trip (ok several trips) through molten hot liquid magma was all he needed in order to play like the hockey star we knew he could be. Well done sir well done!
And keep up Sasha I am so starting an Alexander Semin for All Star Campaign ASAP!
Its great to See the team getting wins early in the season…the chemistry is there and the Caps “wheel” is starting to turn ,turn , turn
Extend Semin now before it cost too much. Five years? Eight?
That was me Ted, I am the infamous hurler of players into a firey volcano. I emailed you to say hello, and thanks for the shout-out. Glad to know my talents of throwing players in volcanos, trapping them in isolation rooms, kicking them in the babymaker, letting them wander into caves, and trampling them by goats is appreciated as a good-spirited joke. There is no malicious intent on it, just a fun board joke.
Like MASS HYSTERIA.
Ted,
While Im not the one that started that thread, I will say that, for the record – the play of every Cap that was “thrown into the volcano” improved almost without fail. Why mess with what works?
Unfortunately, I missed the game last night. It seems thata Versus had ‘exclusive rights’ to the Caps game, yet they chose to broadcast the Flyers game instead?? Whats up with that? Too bad they didn’t give up the rights to Comcast…
Regardless, sounds like a great game.. and a win is a win!! LETS GO CAPS!
It is amazing to see how much he’s matured in the past few months. I suspect there is one event that made it happen and that was bringing in Sergei Fedorov. Since Sergei came to DC, Semin has become a more responsible player in his own end, a more aggressive player on offense, and more willing to share the puck with his teammates and take more and better shots. I could not be happier to see this.
The media seemed to tell us that we couldn’t compete with Pittsburgh as we only had Ovie, while they have Crosby and Malkin… well, we’ve got Ovie and Semin (and Green, and Laich, and Fedorov and…)
ted–now your asking for emails from the same email blowhards you complained about —interesting..
ted sarcasm/revenge is not your style….do not become one of the blowhards (well okay maybe a little sarcasm is your style and thats ok)
I’m not a message board poster (just a lurker), but I think some people were frustrated by Semin’s lazy play during his first few seasons. He does seem to be quite motivated this year though and seems to have matured.
What was up with the ice last night? I believe it might have cost us a few goals. And what was up with the non-call by the officials on the boarding of Mike Green?
I wanted to see the game but I was home sick and since the NHL was nice enough to black it out for a GREAT Versus game, I totally missed the game and had to listen to it on the Net because the AM signal is really bad at night and I could not get it.
While the NHL and the owners might LOVE the money they get from VS, it’s leaving fans in the dark and it seems to effect the CAPS more than other teams, or at least it appears, to me, to do that.
Oh, and NO I did not watch the VS game as my own way of protesting the stupid exclusive tv rights. Doesn’t the Commissioner and the owners realize that this exclusive deal only seems to disenfranchise fans?
Semin looked great but Erskine who just recieved a nice extension clearly looked like he was out of his league most of the game.
It was a fun win, yes. But without Horn Guy and Goat raising their usual ruckus, it didn’t quite feel the same. You two were missed.
And if Semin keeps this up, we might be hearing a lot of acceptance speeches in Russian at next summer’s awards show.
Ted-
I can’t agree more with you on the unbelievable skills of Semin and the rest of the “most exciting team in the NHL”, but it is unacceptable that we weren’t able to watch the game on TV. I beg you… Please do any and everything in your power to see that this will not happen again.
Thanks,
Phil