Tag Archives: Alex Semin

Have to fight through it

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Mike Green had missed 55 of the last 65 regular season games to a series of injuries. Our fans and Mike’s team mates were very excited to see him back on the ice against the Flames. 

In that same game – Alex Semin was off the ice. He suffered an injury and is listed as day to day. 

And now Nick Backstrom is listed as day to day. I believe the league did the right thing in doling out a 5 game suspension and a fine for the play that injured Nick. 

We gained one player of our 4 young guns back into the lineup; and lost two more the same day. One step forward – two steps back. 

Injuries are a part of life in pro sports; we have to fight through it. Other teams have suffered big time injuries and have continued to prosper and we must do so as well. 

We are starting to play well; but now we are quite shorthanded – as we go out West for a short but tough road trip. 

Wish us well; we are not even at the half way point of the season; as bad as the media has written us off – we are playing at about a 94 to 96 point pace. We must continue to improve and get healthy – and be productive as we have noted – every game is important and every point matters. Thank you and Go Caps!

 

 

 

 

Caps Win Again at Home

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Four in a row.

We saw terrific play in goal.

We scored fast on a power play.

We killed off all of our penalties.

Alex Ovechkin is on fire of late with another goal and an assist last night.

Mike Green is back. We are undefeated with Mike in the line up, 9-0.

Alex Semin is off the ice with an injury.

See this story from Japers’ on how much time our core of four players has actually played together.

We are now 7th in the East with 44 points and a game in hand on the SE division leader.

We are making progress with more than half of the season left to play. Everyone is still bunched up in the standings but it is positive to see progress on our behalf.

Thanks Caps fans for your loyalty and patience and support in 2011.

Interesting chart – Alexander Semin

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Alexander Semin will soon become the 5th best goal scorer in Washington Capital’s history. He is now in 8th place with 185 goals scored - right behind Bobby Carpenter who scored 188 goals; in 490 games; Semin has scored his goals in 424 games. Ben Gustafsson is in 5th place with 196 goals scored in 629 games played. 

Alex Ovechkin is in 3rd place already with 313 goals in 510 games played. 

Ovechkin and Semin are the two most prolific scoring team mates in team history. 

An assist to Japers on this chart. 

A good read here – in the Washington Post – but here are also the facts via an informative chart. Thank you.

 

 

Caps Beat Rangers

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A good win at home; we needed the two points. Thanks Caps fans for being loud and proud. 

We missed several open nets; we could have scored 6 goals; but we are very appreciative of scoring 4 and holding the red hot Rangers to only 1 goal. 

Our goal tender was calm and made big saves when necessary and our penalty killing units played really well. 

Congratulations to Alex Semin too for a two goal game and to Alex Ovechkin for his two assists; that gives him points in 5 games in a row. 

It feels good to win one after two straight losses; thank you – Go Caps!

 

 

Thud

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Another tough and poor performance by us in Winnipeg.

After going up 1 to 0; we allow 4 goals against – 3 in a four minute time frame. We lose 4 to 1.

After sifting through a lot of noise – and focusing on signal; for us it usually comes down to:

How well is our core group performing; how are Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Mike Green and Alex Semin contributing to the team performance? They are still the straws the stir the drink. Semin scored one goal last night – Mike Green is still at home, sad to say.

How well are we playing on special teams? Our power play – is it contributing? We are zero for a long time now on the power play. Zero for five last night.

How well are we killing off penalties; we didn’t kill off enough last night. The Jets scored twice.

We have work to do. It is shocking to see we are til tied for the lead in the division at 10-6 and 1. Onward to Toronto. Thank you for your emails over night; I appreciate them all.

Smart Stuff a Comin

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Data. Stats .Analytics. Formed opinions.

I look forward to reading this series from Peerless regardless of where the data may take us.

I am very appreciative of folks that do so much work and invest so much time in thinking about hockey and our team. And then presenting their thoughts in such a well-reasoned manner.

I look forward to see how Alex Ovechkin and Alex Semin, Mike Green and Nick Backstrom perform in playoff games too; according to Peerless.

Who knows where his data will go – but at least it is well reasoned and researched.

To all of you out there that do the work; and don’t just opine. I wanted you to know how much I respect the process and the outcome and the work.

Thanks again. Go Caps!

For Those of You Who Stayed Up Late

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That was like old times, huh?

Thirteen goals scored. We got 7 of them and a win and 2 points.

We never quit. We kept driving to the net and shooting the puck.

Of course it didn’t feel like a playoff game and we can’t afford to fall into bad habits and rely on scoring and opening it up to win games. But for the time being, the game was fun. It was exciting and we get a much needed road win.

We have 70 points. We are 10 points ahead of the 9th place team in the East. There are 24 games left and another road game against San Jose tonight. Now that is a tough schedule! As odd as it seems, 70 points qualifies the team as having the 6th best record as to points in the entire NHL. Sure doesn’t feel like that though, does it?

We got scoring from our second line. Welcome back Alex Semin. You were missed. Thanks Brooks. Nice goal. Nice touch.

We grinded out some goals. Way to go David. And our first line scored 2 goals, too. Thanks Alex Ovechkin – spectacular. And Mike Knuble. Way to go. Just like old times. John Erskine – most appreciated.

We obviously miss Mike Green, Tom Poti and Eric Fehr still.

It is great to get Alex Semin back. Scoring a hat trick and joining the 20+ goal club again.

I also know a few of you were up late as you were sending me emails, mean-spirited in real time, as the game went back and forth. Is that really necessary?

It is the height of hypocrisy to opine during the game with conviction and then NOT to offer an apology post game when the game turned into a win. You lose all credibility acting the way you do. Must have been tough to get to sleep, huh? :-)

Go Caps! Onward. Thank you.

Much Ado About Nothing

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I was at the game last night.

I witnessed first hand all of this activity mentioned in the article.

I also saw Alex Ovechkin and Alex Semin after the game in the locker room. They behaved in the right manner and were respectful to the process of losing a game on the road by the score of 5 to 0. They and all of their teammates were unhappy and quite somber.

They did have a quick chat with a player from the Devils in the outside hallway and at some point someone made a comment which elicited a guffaw from a player. It was too hard to figure out who made the comment and who laughed out loud.

The biggest issue was the location of this meeting which was too close to the media interview also in the hallway. There was no disrespect intended in any of the discussions and meeting, I am quite sure of that. It is a shame that this is being made into something that it wasn’t meant to be because honestly these meetings happen literally after every game outside the Capitals locker room in the little hallway that leads to the visiting locker room at Verizon Center – win or lose.

Let us nip this one in the bud.

Many of our players didn’t play well last night. We can take issue with team performance.

This impromptu meeting should have been held somewhere else but it was not a sign of disrespect in any manner and I was not offended. I didn’t like the way we played but I saw the players acting in the right way in the locker room after the game.