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Blog:
10 April 2008-The Playoffs are just around the corner More…
10 October 2008,
Alexander Semin: “I’m playing for the play-offs”
On the threshold of the start of the 2008/2009 regular season, six of
our superstar players answered some questions from Slava Malamud,
special correspondent for Sport Express in North America. On the day of
the meeting,the Washington Capitals were being interviewed by the local
press, and the Russian Four, (Fedorov, Ovechkin, Kozlov and Semin), gave
a joint interview. Even Semin, who as a rule doesn’t give interviews in
English, was there. Ovechkin served as the translator for the Siberian.
The entire quartet sat before the camera and made serious faces, which
really confused the interviewer. She was used to difficult working
conditions, however, and gave the command to start filming— and at that
exact moment enforcer Donald Brashear walked by and threw a paper wad
right at Ovechkin. The first few seconds of the transmission were marked
by laugher of Homeric proportions by all four, and it caused Semin to
crack up so badly that he was lying on Ovechkin and loudly moaning. The
interview could have ended right with that.
It’s a good thing that the Siberian Alexander shared his pre-season
sentiments with your Sport Express correspondent not long before that.
When asked about how he was feeling, Semin thought for a minute and then
replied “I’m rolling along. That's my feeling right now. The easiness
that you get in the middle of the season hasn’t hit me yet, and there
are some small fatigues, but it's always like this at the beginning.”
What do you personally expect from yourself this year?
“To score as much as possible. But I'm not playing for myself, you know?
So I hope the team wins a lot of games."
And what do you have to do better to bring more benefit to the team?
“Last year I was criticized when I returned after my injury. They said
that I played badly, that I didn’t want to do anything and that I was
avoiding hits. But it didn’t need to be that way. After some hard hits
my ankle went out and I needed to take some more time off. But then it
cleared up, I put on my uniform and everything was in order. So I don't
think that I have any problems-- everything is A-OK."
Do you think you will have a chance to compete against Ovechkin for the
top bombardier spot, or does the team just automatically count on him?
"Chances always exist, you just have to take them. Previously, this team
was young and inexperienced, and one guy did all the heavy lifting for
the rest. Now we have some other people who can also score."
Has the post-playoff attitude already worn off, or is it still there?
"A playoff attitude is out of place right now. When you are in that
mindset you can't think of anything else. At the beginning of the
regular season you don't have this mindset that you go out in the very
first game and kill yourself on the ice-- you have the entire season
ahead of you. Regular season is regular season. Hockey players will make
goals and collect points. It doesn't matter how you make it into the
playoffs. The main thing is that you make it."
Click on icon above for original story in Russian at www.sport-express.ru