384 replies to this topic

[Daniel]

well word from Chesnokov is that Semin was offered a two year deal from CSKA at around the same salary he made playing for the Caps. There's also rumor that Semin has inked a 1 year deal with the Pens.
As to my earlier argument: There is no need to replace Boulton. As I recall last year many on this forum were rightly confused when we signed both Cam and Boulton. Bottom line is that the NHL is such that if you don't have any upside, offensive or defensive, then you're useless. Barch and Janssen are dinosaurs just because they don't bring anything but goonery.
Now I know Barch and Janssen have nothing to do with other signings or Zach etc. What I am saying is is that Lou shouldn't waste his time signing goons. He should be working on bringing in real depth players.
It's going to suck when the Phillys, Pitts and NYRs go out and get the Nashs, Semins and Ryans of the NHL and the Devils are still signing the Barchs, Janssens and Boultons of the NHL. Lou not only needs to address the immediate concerns of this team, but he also has to stay competitive, not only with the league, but with the division. I just don't see how signing Barch and Janssen does that.

Grrr. You admit that Barch and Janssen have nothing to do with other possible moves, but then say Lou is somehow wasting his time. I can picture it now:

Hey Lou, Scott Howson's on the phone and he wants to trade you Nash for Tedenby straight up.

Sorry, tell him to fvck off, I'm on a conference call with Cam and Krys.

EDIT: And I would be thrilled if the Rags, in their quest to add a big name part with one of their starting defensemen.

Edited by Daniel, 09 July 2012 - 10:25 PM.

[ghdi]

Say Alex Semin 10 times fast.

[CarpathianForest]

Grrr. You admit that Barch and Janssen have nothing to do with other possible moves, but then say Lou is somehow wasting his time. I can picture it now:

Hey Lou, Scott Howson's on the phone and he wants to trade you Nash for Tedenby straight up.

Sorry, tell him to fvck off, I'm on a conference call with Cam and Krys.

EDIT: And I would be thrilled if the Rags, in their quest to add a big name part with one of their starting defensemen.

Lou is totally wasting his time on these signings. And I mean time figuratively in that he's not addressing team needs.
Look here's the lines as they currently sit(if we re-sign Sykora:
Kovy-Zajac-Henrique
Elias-Zubrus-Sykora
Clarkson-Josefson-Tedenby
CBGB

If you think those lines can manage to keep us sitting pretty until the trade deadline when we address our needs then more power to you.

[oconnellrules]

lou getting mogilny surprised me. then getting kovy shocked me.

acquiring semin would render me utterly speechless.

[ghdi]

Lou is totally wasting his time on these signings.

You make it sound like it takes days to make these signings. These are signings Lou could take an hour to complete and that may be too generous. I doubt theres a lot of negotiation for deals with guys like Janssen and Barch.

If you think those lines can manage to keep us sitting pretty until the trade deadline when we address our needs then more power to you.

For the 15,000th time. It is July 10th. Devils opening night is 3 months from Wednesday. We dont have to have the roster in place on July 2nd and there is more than enough time to make additions/trades/etc. Thats if they even start on time this year. You're bellyaching because you're impatient.

And if we do go into the season with this team as is, there is absolutely no reason why we can't be competitive with it. We're still better off than a lot of teams going into next year.

[CarpathianForest]

This season I'm going to do a running tally of the amount of times the names Barch, Janssen and Tedenby are mentioned negatively. We'll see.

[Daniel]

Lou is totally wasting his time on these signings. And I mean time figuratively in that he's not addressing team needs.
Look here's the lines as they currently sit(if we re-sign Sykora:
Kovy-Zajac-Henrique
Elias-Zubrus-Sykora
Clarkson-Josefson-Tedenby
CBGB

If you think those lines can manage to keep us sitting pretty until the trade deadline when we address our needs then more power to you.

Maybe they do, maybe they don't. The point is that it isn't always possible to go out and do whatever it is you think the team should do. In fact, I would say that the vast majority of the time you can't get the player you want at an acceptable price.

You sound like a swim coach who does nothing more than yell "swim faster."

[CarpathianForest]

You make it sound like it takes days to make these signings. These are signings Lou could take an hour to complete and that may be too generous. I doubt theres a lot of negotiation for deals with guys like Janssen and Barch.



For the 15,000th time. It is July 10th. Devils opening night is 3 months from Wednesday. We dont have to have the roster in place on July 2nd and there is more than enough time to make additions/trades/etc. Thats if they even start on time this year. You're bellyaching because you're impatient.

And if we do go into the season with this team as is, there is absolutely no reason why we can't be competitive with it. We're still better off than a lot of teams going into next year.

We'll see how competitive we are with these lines. Just don't go complaining when we're a bubble team because we're 4th in our division and a southeastern team has the third spot with less points than us. Bet.

[ghdi]

We'll see how competitive we are with these lines. Just don't go complaining when we're a bubble team because we're 4th in our division and a southeastern team has the third spot with less points than us. Bet.

We were 4th in our division this year!

[CarpathianForest]

Maybe they do, maybe they don't. The point is that it isn't always possible to go out and do whatever it is you think the team should do. In fact, I would say that the vast majority of the time you can't get the player you want at an acceptable price.

You sound like a swim coach who does nothing more than yell "swim faster."

Well if my GM had signed Mark Spitz and Michael Phelps instead of Abbott and Costello I wouldn't have to yell "swim faster!"

We were 4th in our division this year!

Yeah! And the southeast is likely to get more competitive along with the northeast! So instead of finishing 6th because of weaker divisions, we finish 9th or 10th!

[Neb00rs]

Sorry for this long post but I really feel that Semin is being unfairly assailed:

Bradley is a respected veteran. I trust his opinion on the manner. I disagree about teammates keeping silence if they disagreed. If Zach Parise said this about Ilya Kovalchuk, I would expect pretty much all the teammates to stand up for him if it wasn't true:

And what Bradley wanted about star guys being held accountable and heart and soul guys like Chimera getting opportunities ended up being what happened this past season in Washington.

From what I have read with quotes from guys that used to work for the Capitals, he makes no effort to get along with anyone or talk with anyone. It seems anyone who leaves Washington is fine with talking crap about him.

Again, what Bradley said is something players just don't say, but he did - that's a knock against him and not Semin. I don't listen to rumors others spread about people. I do judge actions though and his no effort to speak english is a red flag to me but minor bc there could be reasons for it that idk about.

And does Alex Semin respond back with fighting words? NO. But then again, he probably couldn't.

However, Bradley also called out the whole team, including Boudreau (on why the Caps didn't make it to rd. 2 that year):

http://www.washingto...0sELJ_blog.html

"You know, I don’t have a definite answer. I mean, there’s reasons why. We had some guys who didn’t show up in the playoffs, and I’ll leave them unnamed. I think our locker room was maybe a little bit too nonchalant, and guys weren’t disciplined the way they should have been. Those two things are big things.

The truth is that Bradley is at fault here and he ran his mouth a bit too much. And how would he know if Semin cares or not, if you are right about Semin not having relationships with anybody on the team? He wasn't close with him but he knows what's in his head and heart. Did he confront Semin about this man to man? No. Semin doesn't even speak english and this guy picked on him. Again, it's not something one player says about another publicly. Red flag on Bradley here.

Bradley also said this later (speaking to the DC media if he regrets what he said):

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/matt-bradley-apologizes-is-completely-vindicated-for-semin-slam?urn=nhl,wp15206

"Yeah, 100 percent. As soon as I said it... people who know me know that's not my style and I'm not that kind of guy. As soon as I said it, I knew I shouldn't have said it, and for whatever reason I had a mental lapse. All I can do now is apologize and move forward because I can't take what I said back."

This was part of an article talking about the first game vs. each other after the incident:

http://prohockeytalk...shows-he-cares/

Semin had the final say tonight scoring a beauty of a goal and burning Bradley in the process.

Instead of throwing fuel on the fire after the game, Semin opted to not discuss Bradley’s verbal bombs, wishing to put the drama to rest. All that aside, Semin really put one over on Bradley with this electric goal beating rookie Jacob Markstrom.

That sure shows some character right there. Shut his mouth and scored.

Bradley is forgiven - he was emotional.

As far as Semin his other teammates go, how about this article on him:

http://www.washingto...ey-loud-and-cl/

There’s more to Semin than 28 goals and 26 assists this season, but it doesn’t matter much to him that Caps fans understand him personally, as he says repeatedly, “I’d just rather talk about hockey.” With the playoffs beginning Wednesday night, his focus is on the New York Rangers and trying to score his first postseason goal in two years.

But Semin does sometimes let flashes of an off-ice personality shine through a seemingly cold exterior.

“At times he shows his personality. He’s a guy that likes to have fun and stuff like that,” defenseman Jeff Schultz said. “Around the teammates he’s joking around, he’s very personable and he’s just one of the guys.”

Fans got to see one of those atypical public moments April 2. After the Caps’ overtime victory over the Sabres, Semin picked up 5-year-old William Shannon and held him during the shirts-off-their-backs ceremony. William, who is suffering from leukemia, practiced with the team earlier in the week, and Semin just wanted to do something nice.

“Doing something small like that just to make him happy, why not?”Semin said. “I like kids, and I always like kids because all the kids are our future.”

and Responding to Arnott calling him out for needing some a push sometimes:

“I wouldn’t say he called me out,” Semin said. “He just told me some suggestions. He said, ‘Hey, the playoffs are coming, we gotta start keeping pucks in the middle zone, you better not lose it, and when you’re going against one-on-three, don’t do that.’ It was more of a suggestion than a calling-out. I never thought of it as being called out - just good advice.”

Sounds like a good attitude to me.

The article ends with this line:

The thing is, not many get to know him. But that’s just how Semin wants it.

It sounds to me like Semin has personal reasons for not being so outgoing all the time. Sounds like he comes from a tough place. And we're all judging him when he can't defend himself. The dude has no criminal offenses, hasn't been seen partying all night and doesn't mouth off. Yet, he still gets personally attacked.

So in review: He's quiet, he plays 2-way and he doesn't talk to the media. Sounds like....a Devil?

Edited by ben00rs, 09 July 2012 - 11:02 PM.

[CarpathianForest]

He's gonna work out real well in Pittsburgh, Ben00rs

[Neb00rs]

He's gonna work out real well in Pittsburgh, Ben00rs

maybe. but where he signs has nothing to do with my defense of him.

[SterioDesign]

http://www.anguscert...the-10-percent/

heres an interesting article about Semin

[devilsrule33]

I'm not saying he is a monster. There are just so many red flags right now. There is a reason he hasn't been signed yet. Every GM in the league is looking for a player this talented yet no one wants to give him a long-term deal.

Benoors, an NHL locker room is a special bond. It's a family. For whatever reason guys don't respond well to players being shy and reserved. They consider it having a bad attitude and not being one of the guys. They threw Avery out of Dallas for stuff like that. Is it right? I don't think so, but it's the way it is. I don't think Alex Semin is a bad person at all.

As for Bradley, he isn't in the right for saying all those things, but he wasn't totally wrong either in his assessment. Of course he'll regret saying it because the little interview went national, and he probably pissed off some friends. Alexander Semin is still here and not in the KHL, so he must still want to play in the NHL. But he perhaps hasn't done the best job of showing it...

Edited by devilsrule33, 09 July 2012 - 11:14 PM.

[Neb00rs]

I'm not saying he is a monster. There are just so many red flags right now. There is a reason he hasn't been signed yet. Every GM in the league is looking for a player this talented yet no one wants to give him a long-term deal.

Benoors, an NHL locker room is a special bond. It's a family. For whatever reason guys don't respond well to players being shy and reserved. They consider it having a bad attitude and not being one of the guys. They threw Avery out of Dallas for stuff like that. Is it right? I don't think so, but it's the way it is. I don't think Alex Semin is a bad person at all.

As for Bradley, he isn't in the right for saying all those things, but he wasn't totally wrong either in his assessment. Of course he'll regret saying it because the little interview went national, and he probably pissed off some friends. Alexander Semin is still here and not in the KHL, so he must still want to play in the NHL. But he perhaps hasn't done the best job of showing it...

I've agreed there are red flags and I find no fault in this post (except for the Avery comparison). However, my issue is that he is being talked about as if he is the kind of guy who doesn't give a fvck about anyone but himself, doesn't care to try hard and has character issues in general. And its just not fair or true. Again, tell me when he is on TMZ or arrested or both. I do think we are closer to the same page now though.

[CarpathianForest]

I'm more bothered that Poni wasn't signed than Parise.

[SterioDesign]

Can you imagine somehow..... coaching this team.......

Ovechkin Kane Semin
Cammalleri Ott Radulov
Heatley Gomez Avery
Cooke Neil Rinaldo

Subban Bickel
Schwartz Phaneuf
Souray Bogosian

Thomas
Smith


thats some sh!tty attitude in a locker room im telling ya... lol coaches would literally be jumping off bridges

[grcenter47]

Can you imagine somehow..... coaching this team.......

Ovechkin Kane Semin
Cammalleri Ott Radulov
Heatley Gomez Avery
Cooke Neil Rinaldo

Subban Bickel
Schwartz Phaneuf
Souray Bogosian

Thomas
Smith


thats some sh!tty attitude in a locker room im telling ya... lol coaches would literally be jumping off bridges

don cherry as coach?