When the Washington Capitals need a goal, there are quite a few players that they can look to. Of course, there's Alex Ovechkin. There's also Nicklas Backstrom. Alexander Semin is normally another option, but he wasn't Monday. That's because he was wearing a suit in the press box. Head coach Bruce Boudreau scratched Semin - his first such designation in eight years - in Washiington's come-from-behind 4-3 win over the Phoenix Coyotes.
Coyotes Vs. Capitals: Caps Snap Four-Game Skid Without Alexander Semin
The Caps came back from a 2-0 deficit to defeat the Coyotes 4-3 Monday and did it without Alexander Semin, healthy scratched for the first time in eight years.
“We’ve talked about it. I guess the talk has gone away from it because we were starting to lose,” Boudreau said of scratching Semin. “We’ve scratched guys. He was taking penalties seven games in a row. At some point you have to be accountable for your errors.”
Accountability has been the buzzword surrounding the Caps all season. Semin has been benched during a game before; he sat out of the second half of November 11's win over the New Jersey Devils. Yet, this was the first time that one of the Caps' "Young Guns" wasn't dressed without being hurt in quite a while. Washington ultimately did not need Semin Monday, but a message has been sent not just to Semin, but the entire roster.
“I don’t like doing those things to people that are that talented, but everybody’s got to know that everybody’s accountable,” Boudreau said. “It was a tough decision, but it was a decision, I thought, that had to be made for the group.”
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