Just Who Is That Masked Man?

Caps' Semin Still a Bit of an Unknown Quantity

Alexander Semin's ability to single-handedly change the outcome of a game was never in doubt after the Washington Capitals' second game last season. That night, Semin scored a hat trick on consecutive shots -- a ballistic blast from the blueline, a perfectly placed wrist shot from the circle and gimme from the goal line.

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Semin's talent cannot be questioned. But for all of his breathtaking goals and imaginative passes, the 23-year-old Russian winger, who is crucial to the Capitals' hopes of ending a three-season playoff absence, remains a mystery to fans and his teammates, his young career marked by promise and controversy.

Under the "personal" section in his media guide bio, the following was written: "Last name is pronounced SEH-minh." That's it. Listed next to his 38 goals and 35 assists last season are 90 minutes in minor penalties, an abnormally high number for a player with his level of skill.

"He's a bit of an enigma," veteran goaltender Olie Kolzig said. "We don't really know too much about him. We know he's a talented kid. But not much else."

Semin remains a virtual unknown in his own locker room in part because his command of English remains limited. While his countryman and close friend Alex Ovechkin regularly holds court with reporters after games and practices, Semin looks on quietly as he removes his pads.

Isolated by culture and language, Semin has been reluctant to grant in-depth interviews to American reporters and only recently agreed to share some of his thoughts through an interpreter.

A Long Way From Home

Semin was raised in Krasnoyarsk, a large industrial city in southern Siberia, where the economy revolves around an aluminum factory and the winters are bitter. His father, Valeri, worked in the factory and his mother, Tatiana, was a bank teller. Their home was modest.

Semin's hockey career began at age 4, when his father, a former professional hockey player and youth coach, modified a pair of figure skates and put him on the ice.

Valeri never coached his son, at least not formally. Instead, he did so in the car after games and at the dinner table, tutoring him on the game's intricacies, the wrist shot in particular.

"Even when I played good, he was very critical," Alexander Semin said.

As a 17-year-old, he was selected to attend the renowned hockey school Traktor Chelyabinsk and spent the 2001-02 season splitting time between the club's junior and professional squads.

After one season with Chelyabinsk, he earned a spot on Lada Togliatti, one of the Russian Super League's premier teams. He had 10 goals and seven assists in 47 regular season games, and five goals and four assists in 10 playoff games.