Alex Semin: Injured, Soft, or Traded?

So far this season Alex Semin has been a disappointment. I have heard the word "soft" used several times when talking about Sasha and people have been wondering if Sasha Cares after Matt Bradley talked S about him on his way out of town.

He has commited tons of stupid penalties and hasn't been producing to counteract those mistakes. Earlier in the season he was benched mid-game by Bruce Boudreau. Later, he was benched pre-game. After the healty scratch game, Semin came right back on the ice and commited another O-Zone penalty.

On Saturday night against the Senators, Semin sat out with what the Capitals called a shoulder injury. He is out again Monday against the Panthers which I learned from the following tweet.

If you are Alex Semin, and you have been benched twice already, wouldn't you really want to prove that you are a great player. Wouldn't you want to get out on the ice and make all the critics eat their words? So I think there are a few things that could be the case.

1. Sasha Is Injured: Maybe Semin is injured to the point where he just can't move his shoulder. I'd like to think that is the case but for some reason I don't believe it. He got hit in a game and wasn't down on the ice hurt. Maybe he is dinged up a bit but this is hockey and players (typically) won't want to miss any games due to injury. Look at all the NFL players pretending they don't have concussions so they don't have to sit out.

2. Sasha Doesn't Care: If Semin doesn't have a typical athlete personality he may have had enough. He doesn't commit penalties on purpose and he tries not to but it just happens. Then the coach yells at him and he gets down on himself and it turns in to a psycological issue. Maybe we are at the point where he doesn't like being at work because it sucks so he his finding a way to sit out.

3. Coach Doesn't Care: Maybe Semin was slightly hurt and the coaching staff is using it as an excuse to keep a player benched that they don't think they need on the ice to win. I kind of like this theory, if the next one isn't true...

4. Sasha Has Already Unofficially Been Traded: This is my conspiracy theory. I think that the team has already decided that Semin is gone. I think that the deal is just about done and they are working out the details this week. I am thinking he is gone and not on the trade block because he is sitting and they aren't "showcasing him" (although maybe his value is higher when he is off the ice cuz he can't play poorly) It is his contract year and they get 0 value if he leaves at the end of the season, and if everyone hates him all the time why would he want to stay.

The way Tarik wrote that tweet made it seem like Alex isn't really injured...I think there is a good chance #3 is true, but I won't be suprised in the next couple days if Alex is gone baby gone.