Sports Post, Written for a Popular Washington Capitals Blog

June, 2012

Alexander Semin, formerly of the Washington Capitals and currently free agent, has proven beyond a shadow of reasonable doubt that apathy is most sinful characteristic to possess in the NHL.  Oddly enough, it isn’t Semin’s game or his actually-impressive-stats that have invited a slew of name-calling and critique during the ongoing Free Agent Frenzy.  In fact, most analysts and fans of the sport have agreed that Semin’s raw talent might be his only redeeming quality as a hockey player.  No, what irks hockey lovers about Alexander Semin is that the former Cap relentlessly reminds fans of the innate absurdity of loving a sport more than life itself, that athletic competition is inane and foolish, and worst of all and most offensively, that hockey is only a game.  In other words, Semin has come to embody a foreign thread infiltrating the NHL, a Personification of the Un-American.

Semin isn’t merely un-American because he is, well, Russian.  If anything, Russians in the league have the potential to point to and reify American values even more so than the Americans in the league.  Take Alex Ovechkin, for example.  Ovechkin is a natural leader, an attentive team-player, a camera-favorite, an endorsement-receiver, and a tennis-hottie-dater.  It just doesn’t get quite more American-athlete than that.  Ovechkin is as American as apple pie, and is as beloved as Tom Brady, say.  The point is, sports fans prefer their foreigners American-ized because these players remind us of all that is wonderful in American sports, and more broadly, they remind us of what we love about our country.

Well Hockey hasn’t quite caught on yet in America.  If we are talking about sports that capture the essence of American wonderfulness, football and baseball come to mind, followed before or after (depending on where you’re from) by NASCAR, then by basketball, and finally, by hockey.  This means that despite its not-quite-thriving popularity in the U.S., American hockey fans are forced to pick out and love hockey for some of its very American features: fierce competitiveness, Midwestern accents, unbreakable team bonds, and of course, brute hotheadedness and fist-fighting. 

It is throughout these features where Alexander Semin shines as the Anti-America.  As a hockey player, Semin is far from competitive.  He seems genuinely pleased when he scores a goal, but otherwise, doesn’t seem too concerned with the outcome of any given game.  While other players in the league would trade their first-borns for the Cup, Semin seems unaware that the Cup even exists.  And while he is undeniably a strong player, Semin might not care about winning- a quality so blatantly un-American that no further explanation is needed.

Far from having a Midwestern accent, Semin has barely picked up the English language.  This has meant that Semin has not been the subject of many interviews, while other strong players in the NHL have (a reality that Pierre McGuire seems to be taking pretty personally).  The Russian native made his NHL debut in the 2003-2004 season, but did not have a single English interview until September of 2011.  This language barrier has undoubtedly contributed to the mystery in which Semin is cloaked, but he has admittedly not found this to be a problem.  In a 2009 interview, Semin averred (in Russian): “I don’t even feel this barrier.  If I can’t say something, then I don’t say it.”  Semin’s lingual separateness has further pointed to his foreignness, and not only because his English is not very strong, but more so because he feels no need to speak if he has nothing to say.

With regard to Semin’s ‘team spirit,’ many people have had a lot to say, including sportscasters, analysts, and former and current teammates of Alex.  The facts are as follows: Semin likely got off on a bad foot with his coaches and teammates in the NHL.  During his first season in America, he missed his team’s flight to Pittsburg and subsequently missed the Capitals’ game- an almost unheard-of mishap in the NHL.  Next, during the ’04-’05 lockout, Semin insisted on returning to Russia, despite being told by his coach to remain in Pittsburgh to play with the Capitals’ AHL affiliate.  While in Russia, Semin was called up to fulfill his two-year obligation to serve in the Russian army (a requirement for all citizens), which he honored by playing hockey in Russia for two years.  But serving in the Russian military came at the price of fulfilling his contract with the Capitals and eventually led to the Capitals suing Semin to force him to play under the contract.  (A judge denied the Capitals’ injunctive relief, allowing Semin to finish out his service in Russia).  Semin returned to the U.S. in 2006 and re-signed a two-year contract with the Capitals. 

What all this points out is not that Semin is a bad NHL teammate, just that he is a terrific Russian citizen: Semin chose to break an American hockey contract rather than dishonor his country’s military service requirement or bail on his Russian teammates.  Further, in 2009, Semin described the city in Siberia from which he hails- Krasnoyarsk- as a city that engenders deep love from everyone who has ever lived there, a city he still feels is his home.  In the same interview, Semin was asked about the importance of having a Russian community on his team to which he answered, “It’s always great to have Russians on the team, because Russians are Russians.”  Well said, Alex.

Clearly, Semin is a Russian patriot and a deep lover of his homeland.  Perhaps it is the vestiges of Cold-War fears and concerns, but this quality seems highly offensive to most American hockey fans.  But what exactly is wrong with Semin loving Russia more than he does America?  Isn’t our Country’s relationship with him- and with all our foreign sports players, for that matter- nothing more than a symbiotic business alliance?  Is it really necessary that they all become flag-flying American patriots too?

Ironically, when Semin returned to the U.S. after playing in Russia for 2 years, he scored the Capitals’ first goal of the season; in the next game, he got a hat-trick; later in the season, he got another hat-trick in 7.04 minutes.  Semin finished that first season back as the Capitals’ second highest scorer, ranking 13^th highest scorer in the league.  Maybe all the guy needed was a visit back home to remind him of what he loves and to reignite within him some passion for the game.

Finally, Semin’s un-American-ness is boldly highlighted in his seeming inability to throw down in a fist-fight.  Everyone remembers his epic “fisticuffs” against Marc Staal, wherein Semin played Staal’s back “like a bongo.”  I am reminded here of driving to school with my brother while we were both in high school.  My brother used to play a little driving game, where, if someone cut him off or cut in front of him, he would switch lanes to drive alongside the cutting-off car, drive up next to him, and stick out his tongue at the other driver.  This, he figured, would point to the silliness and absurdity of displaying aggression on the road for no good reason.  “It’s the same behavior on the playground, carried forward in life,” he would say to me after withdrawing his tongue. 

Alexander Semin likely ascribes to a similar theory.  I cannot say for sure, but I really do believe that Semin loves to play hockey.  It’s all the other foolishness that comes along with hockey with which he has a harder time.  When asked about the fight during a 2009 interview, Semin proclaimed, “That’s not my job to fight.”  Semin’s words point to a very pragmatic approach toward hockey: his job is to play hockey.  Period.  It isn’t his job to become best friends with all his teammates; it isn’t his job to let McGuire drool all over him; and it certainly isn’t his job to pummel Marc Staal, regardless of how much he may have deserved it.  And yet, Semin received a lot of heat for his inability to fight well, but really think about it: Is it really possible that a 20-something-year-old from Siberia, who played hockey for most of his life, doesn’t know how to throw a real punch or knock out another player?  That seems pretty unbelievable to me.  What is more likely is that Semin elected to fight in a silly manner, because the very idea of fighting when he is supposed to just be playing hockey- doing his job- seemed downright absurd to him.

Semin is offensive to American hockey fans because he strips the game of everything we love: raw passion, illogical competitiveness, and childish faith.  Semin represents none of those things.  He plays the game well because it’s what he’s good at and because it’s his job, but his attachment to the sport goes no further than that.  Still, his value as a team-member should not be overlooked.  Aside from his undeniably impressive stats, the presence of Semin in the NHL serves as a constant and persistent reminder to the rest of us- hockey fans, players, announcers, and McGuires of the world- what we love about the sport and why we watch it.  Through Alexander Semin’s well-formed and closely held apathy, we each come to find a newfound passion for the game.