Capitals senior staff writer Mike Vogel tweets that Alex Semin is indeed a healthy scratch for the first time since his rookie season. Bruce Boudreau had told reporters at his pre-game media scrum that his lineup remains in flux. That’s probably true on the blueline, where one of John Erskine or Jeff Schultz will have to sit for rookie Dmitry Orlov. But Semin will sit out for the first time since he was 19 years old.
How did we get here? As I wrote on Sunday, Semin has two goals and two assists in his last 13 games. Overall, he sits at 4/5/9. That puts him on pace for around 18 goals, 41 assists and 59 points – not enough production from a guy with a $6.7 million salary-cap hit who has topped 28 goals four times and 70 points three times.
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It doesn’t help that Semin is a penalty machine right now. He’s taken at least one minor penalty in each of the last seven games. Semin has 14 minors total. Only Anaheim’s Corey Perry (15) has more. No one else on the Caps has more than eight (defenseman Roman Hamrlik). Apparently, the Caps have had enough.
The big question later this week is what this says about Semin’s status in the organization. Does the team look to move him in a trade? He only signed a one-year extension last January with no ability to restrict his movement. Or does the team make this a one-time thing – part of its accountability crusade – and move on Wednesday with Semin back in the lineup? Remember, Semin was already benched for the much of the third period of a 3-1 win at New Jersey on Nov. 11. That message didn’t sink in, apparently.
Semin has been a healthy scratch before in his career. He made the opening night roster to start the 2003-04 season, but was scratched the first three games of that season. He missed three more games later that October, but I wasn’t able to figure if that was a coaches’ decision or injury. Semin played in 12 of 14 games that November and two of three to start December before the Caps allowed him to leave the team for a month to participate in the prestigious World Juniors tournament. He returned Jan. 9, 2004 and appeared in 52 games during that trying season.
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