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David Steckel calls Matt Bradley’s criticisms of Alexander Semin ‘not shocking at all’

bradleysteckel

James

In the NFL, teams will often pick up free agents from division rivals in hopes of getting some precious bits of intelligence about their opponents. When it comes to the NHL, it seems like reporters can squeeze some interesting comments about a team once a player no longer wears that sweater.

At least, that’s the way it seems with two former Washington Capitals. Earlier this month, we passed along Matt Bradley’s candid comments about his former team. To give you a quick synopsis, Bradley claimed that mercurial winger Alexander Semin ‘just doesn’t care,’ riffed on coach Bruce Boudreau’s tendency to coddle underachieving star players and was mostly complimentary toward Alex Ovechkin. While some dismiss Bradley because he was just a role player during his six seasons alongside Semin & Co., it was still a bit startling to see a hockey player tear apart his former teammates in such a brash way.

Of course, there were many who weren’t surprised at all since Bradley was backing up widely held (but maybe somewhat unfair) criticisms about Semin and the team as a whole. The Washington Post’s Lindsay Applebaum passes along remarks from another former Capitals and current New Jersey Devils grinder David Steckel, who didn’t seem all that shocked by what Bradley had to say.

“It’s not like he went out and told lies,” former Capitals forward David Steckel told The Post’s Tarik El-Bashir and other reporters Wednesday at Kettler Capitals Iceplex. Bradley “didn’t really say anything bad about anybody. He just stated what he felt.”

(snip)

“First reaction was like, ‘Brads, what did you do?’” Steckel said. “Then I read the transcript and, I mean, it’s Brads. It’s not like he’s somebody breaking into the league telling things that nobody knows about already. He’s an elder statesman in the league; he’s been around and he’s in a different organization now.”

“The transcript I read, there was nothing there was nothing that shocking at all, that blew me away,” he added.


It must sting a little to hear former teammates be so dismissive, but Semin and the Capitals could harness that negative energy into bulletin board material to prove their doubters wrong. (If Semin and the Caps care at all, that is.)

Next season is a pivotal one for Boudreau - who’s likely on his last leg as their head coach - and contract-year players such as Semin, Mike Green, Tomas Vokoun, Mike Knuble and Dennis Wideman. Owner Ted Leonsis said that the team probably has a 10-15 year window to win the Stanley Cup, but that doesn’t mean that everyone will be around if they can’t get the job done soon. You can bet that there are plenty of players and coaches who will be fighting for their jobs next season, which should make Washington one of the NHL’s most interesting teams to watch in 2011-12.

For what it’s worth, Steckel also commented on his Winter Classic hit on Sidney Crosby, which might make him part of a sad trivia question some day.

“I see the ticker. It’s unfortunate,” he said. “I had no intent to injure him. I feel just as bad as anybody. I don’t want to see anybody out of the game for that long. It’s bad enough with everything that’s going around with other guys [and] head [injuries]. It’s just so uncertain. I feel bad. I wish him the best. I don’t wish that upon anybody.”

(H/T to Kukla’s Korner.)