Alexander Semin’s return to the lineup for Washington last night proved to be a pretty good one. He scored the first goal of the game and managed to not pick up any penalties. More importantly, the Caps went on to win in overtime over the division rival Jets.
As for how Semin played, he got into the mindset of Thanksgiving by being thankful for not winding up on the score sheet for all the wrong reasons. Katie Carrera of The Washington Post hears from Semin about how he assessed his first game back in the lineup and he was typically understated.
“It’s actually not important whether it was my best game or not,” Semin said through an interpreter. “The most important thing is that we won. And I’m just happy that I didn’t pick up a penalty.”
It’s a bummer that he was so understated about his game because he really did play a solid game against the Jets. A goal, no penalties, a +2 rating. That’s doing some good work right there.
Getting a focused and motivated Semin is huge for the Caps as he’s one of their more dynamic offensive weapons. Now if they can find a way to get Alex Ovechkin scoring goals in bunches again, maybe everyone can start shutting up about how off the Caps look.