His Best Shot : Anatoli Semenov Has Become Offensive Force for Mighty Ducks

When the lights glare, the cameras crowd in and the microphones are offered like so many bouquets, Anatoli Semenov protests that his English is not very good.

When the group is smaller, and the risk of being misunderstood is less, the Moscow-born center for the Mighty Ducks expresses himself well.

“Darwinism,” he told a Vancouver reporter who asked how he had made the adjustment to four NHL teams in four seasons after playing 11 seasons for the same Russian team, Moscow Dynamo.

Say what?

“Darwinism,” Semenov said. “Like animals in the jungle. The strong survive.”

Semenov, 31, has undergone an evolution as a hockey player since leaving the former SovietUnion for the Edmonton Oilers in 1990.

He was schooled in the way of Russian centers, as a finesse passer and checker, at ease on the bigger European ice surfaces--a player who adjusted to the team.

“That’s the way he’s been brought up playing,” Duck Coach Ron Wilson said. “He was never on the No. 1 line in Russia. He’s got that mind-set, don’t get scored against, and the offense will be taken care of by other people. But in our situation here, he’s the man.”

Indeed.

After a slow start, Semenov has emerged as the Ducks’ leading scorer and best offensive player. His nine goals and 24 points make him the highest-scoring player on either of the two newest expansion teams as the Ducks meet the Florida Panthers for the first time tonight.

The catalyst has been a new line combination, Semenov with left wing Garry Valk, a teammate in Vancouver last season, and right wing Peter Douris. That line has produced 46 points in the last 17 games. Semenov has 18 points in that stretch, and had a nine-game point streak.

An earlier combination with Terry Yake, the Ducks’ second-best playmaker, didn’t take. Valk and Douris have a straighter-up-and-down style, and they are able to go into the corners, where neither Semenov nor Yake fares well.

Valk played on a line with Semenov late last season with the Canucks, but they were mostly in a checking role. Now, more and more, he sees Semenov shooting.

“You know, he was playing with Pavel Bure a lot of the year last year. He would be on a breakaway and he’d stop and pass it to Pavel,” Valk said. “He wasn’t asked to score, he was asked to get Pavel the puck so he got Pavel the puck. . . . Pavel ended up getting 60 goals last year. I’m sure Anatoli was in on three-quarters of them. He’s a creator.

“Here it probably took him a while to get used to having to shoot more. That’s what we want him to do because he’s got a big shot.”

Wilson was an assistant coach in Vancouver last season, so he knew what he had in Semenov, who had 10 goals and 34 assists in 62 games with the Canucks after being traded by Tampa Bay.

Wilson has made him understand that the first-year Ducks need to wring all the skill they can from the players they have.

“We couldn’t get him to shoot last year,” Wilson said. “Tony’s got a logical mind, he figures he might as well pass to someone who shoots better. But we don’t have anybody who shoots better here. So I’ve appealed to his logic: ‘You’re the best shooter we have, so shoot.’ ”

Semenov has complied.

“I understand, if you don’t shoot, you don’t score. That’s simple.”

No one is more struck by the difference than defenseman Alexei Kasatonov, who played with Semenov on the 1988 Soviet Olympic team and played against him for many years in the Soviet Elite League, when Kasatonov played for Central Red Army.

This quick-release slap shot?

“Yes, for me, it’s, uh, surprise,” Kasatonov said. “I know he likes to pass and plays defense. This season he score lots of goals.”

Semenov has had a reputation for being a bit fragile by NHL standards, and he can be knocked down rather easily at times. Wilson saw him struggle late last season--probably one reason the Canucks left him unprotected for the expansion draft--and he has countered by giving his No. 1 center liberal time off from practice.

“I think that, rested properly between games, he can play like this the whole year,” Wilson said.

Last year in Vancouver, Wilson said Semenov’s time was not managed well.

“So with that in my mind right now, that Tony wears down as the season goes on, I’m not practicing him very hard,” Wilson said. “He only practices maybe half the times we practice.”

Semenov’s confidence seems to increase every time he skates in and unleashes his hard, accurate slap shot, though he says the assists are as satisfying as ever.

“His mind set is changing from what I’d seen before,” Wilson said. “He constantly tells himself he’s not that good of a hockey player, and I think he’s a great hockey player, but he never encourages himself. I think he’s doing more of that, and expecting more.”

Semenov smiles.

“Now, for me, just fun, I like it. I like this team. I don’t know, I just, I love it.”