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Boudreau calls Semin “misunderstood”

Former Washington Capitals head coach Bruce Boudreau spoke with Dan Rosen of NHL.com today and touched on a myriad of topics -- his relationship with Alex Ovechkin, the Capitals’ struggles and when he knew the team had stopped responding to him.

But his most interesting comments might’ve been about mercurial sniper Alex Semin, who Boudreau made a healthy scratch earlier this season.

Boudreau said Semin was “misunderstood” and shot down criticisms of Semin lacking passion/desire to win. He did say, however, that penalties became a major issue for the 27-year-old Russian.

“Unfortunately when he took penalties he felt so much remorse,” Boudreau said. “I mean, a couple of nights ago he took a penalty and said, ‘I couldn’t play anymore after that because I was so shaken up.’ He cares, but things right now aren’t bouncing for him.

“When you’re used to doing something like scoring and you’re not scoring, it wears on your mind, and I’m sure that’s where it was with Alex. But I talked to him more this year than ever before and he talked to me more than ever before. We communicated well and he wanted to do a lot of things right.”

Semin’s on pace for a career-low 18 goals and 37 points -- a stunning falloff from a guy that, just two years ago, potted 40 goals and finished 13th in league scoring. Boudreau said he’d communicated with Semin this year more than any other and never felt Semin was uncoachable.

If anything, Boudreau worked harder than ever to snap Semin and the Capitals out of their slumps. Just one problem -- not everybody thought they were slumping.

“This wasn’t a slump,” Caps GM George McPhee said Monday. “You can ride out slumps. This was simply a case of the players were no longer responding to Bruce. When you see that, as much as you don’t want to make a change, you have to make a change.”

More Boudreau: Here’s BB speaking with Jill Sorenson of CSN Washington about how the Caps stopped responding to him.