Tuesday afternoon, the Montreal Canadiens-Semin experiment came to an end when the team exposed him to waivers.
By Patrick Comia
Oh how the mighty have fallen, and it might be for good.
This afternoon, the Eastern Conference-leading Canadiens placed Alexander Semin on waivers, closing another chapter of his book of failed attempts.
Remember this tidbit when Canadiens head coach Michel Therrien had this to say of the addition of Semin to his team this past offseason:
“It’s a nice challenge, that’s how I look at it…He’s a guy that’s full of potential, and there’s an opportunity for him to get back to where we think he can be as a player, and where I imagine he also thinks he can be as a player. We’re going to give him an opportunity, and it’s the type of player we were missing when you looked at our team. He’s a guy who can score, who can make plays and who’s shown in the past that he can contribute to the success of a team offensively. But as far as I’m concerned, I see it as a challenge.”
#Canadiens place forward Alexander Semin on waivers: https://t.co/8cNcE1hTsK @EricEngels pic.twitter.com/zObDRWlIHk
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) December 7, 2015
That makes two failed attempts by NHL teams to get the best out of the Russian forward. The former prolific scorer, who in one season scored 84 points and was a member of the 40-40 club (40 goals and 44 assists in 2009-2010), has gone dormant and become a shell of himself.
He’s had a reputation of being lazy, and that has preceded him wherever he has landed. Even with the Capitals, playing alongside fellow-countryman Alexander Ovechin, he was criticized for his unmotivated play.
It’s no wonder that the other 29 NHL teams passed on the right-winger when he was placed on waivers today, on his way to the St. John’s Ice Caps of the AHL.
Who wants that kind of personality in the locker room, let alone on the ice in a pivotal game?
Honestly, you would be better off to play Tanner Glass over Semin in a game that mattered at this point. At least with a player like Glass you know what you are going to get: hard work, full-speed ahead effort, and toughness. He is someone you’d love to have beside in the trenches.
It’s the opposite with Semin. You don’t know which player you are going to get in a given night. And it begs the question do you even want to know the answer.
“He has a lot of things to improve in order to play for our team,” Canadiens coach Michel Therrien said Tuesday to NHL.com.
Coach, I think one of those would be his fighting skills. Rangers fans will be forever tickled silly by his “I’m going to slap you silly fight” with Marc Staal in 2009.
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