Bruce Boudreau has turned “accountability” into a cottage industry so far this season. Have a sub-par training camp, Marcus Johansson? Have a seat for the season opener. Same goes for you, Tomas Vokoun. Alex Ovechkin puts together an off night? No need to hit the ice late in a tie game. We’ll win without you. Mike Knuble has been dropped to the fourth line. Jeff Halpern has been a healthy scratch – for reasons he couldn’t quite understand at the time.
Is it Alex Semin’s turn? The mercurial winger actually scored a goal in Tuesday’s 5-2 loss to the Dallas Stars. But he also took two more minor penalties. And while Boudreau acknowledges that officials tend to target Semin because of a well-earned reputation as a penalty machine, things are going too far. Semin now has a team-high nine minor penalties in 13 games. What’s next?
“Well, you address it by taking ice time away,” Boudreau said. “Alex Semin got two shifts after the second penalty both on power plays. As hard as he worked in the first period, too, and scored a goal and everything else. But he can’t be leading our team in penalties with nine minors in 13 games. It can’t be done. So he’s got to move his legs to not take those penalties.”
Semin actually took three shifts over the final 13 minutes, 58 seconds of the game – and, yes, two were on the power play – but point taken. Wondering if Semin’s turn to watch from the press box has come. He played 15:42 total – low, but he’s actually seen less ice time than that in three other games.
After the morning skate on Tuesday, Boudreau actually praised Semin. The goals and points (2/5/7) weren’t there entering the Dallas game. But Boudreau and Semin watched some video together Tuesday to figure out why the puck wasn’t going in for him. Boudreau called it “a matter of time” before Semin hit pay dirt again and that proved correct 10 hours later. Some of his other comments weren’t quite as on target.
“[Semin is] more committed to doing what we’re supposed to be doing,” Boudreau said before the Dallas game. “You don’t see those real big lapses of staying out on the ice for long periods of time. You don’t see – I know he’s gotten penalties. But you don’t see the actual reaching. A couple of times there’s scoring chances and he has to take them. That’s the nature of the beast. He’s going to get better, but I like the way he’s trending.”
Or at least he did like the way Semin was trending. Back to the drawing board, I guess. Just a matter of how that message gets delivered now. A night off or just a reduction in ice time?
Follow me on Twitter @bmcnally14
