Well, I can't speak for Sens, but for me, I think Wally touched on it earlier. There seems to be a stylistic difference in how he enters the zone and plays in the offensive zone lately.
In the past, he'd enter the zone or get the puck and button hook or attempt to maneuver around defenders, often times looking for an open teammate to pass to, eventually leading him to either force an ill-advised pass or skate himself into a poor scoring chance.
Lately, he's been much more direct. He gets the puck and it's heading toward the net, either with him firing quickly or his "north-south" game up the ice. It's not on his stick long and the random Samsonov-esque strolls around the offensive zone seem to have lessened.
And just doing a quick skim of the numbers over the past couple games compared to the games a couple weeks ago, he seems to be shooting the puck more and getting more pucks through. More shot attempts and more shots hitting the net rather than missing high/wide or getting blocked.
Regarding the point about how he's taking direct lines to the net now, I can't say that I have seen the same thing. For example, if you'll watch the first goal that Buffalo scored tonight you'll notice a few things that AJJ alluded to earlier, and that I outlined in my post, about Semin's habits.
http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?id=2013020759-85-ingame-h
1. He has his back to goal and is curling back towards the neutral zone. He passes the puck so hard that Tlusty can't field it properly. Part of a cycle, yes, but a dangerous pass and an "east-west" play as the puck is not moving towards the opposition net.
2. Watch Semin's skates and notice the direction that would be natural for him to skate when the puck is turned over and where he ends up when the goal is scored.
3. By virtue of his skating and Tlusty coming down, Semin became the F3 on this play. Instead of backchecking to be safe, he assumes that Harrison is going to be able to get there and chip the puck back up the boards to where Semin is literally standing and waiting. As the F3. Standing and waiting. I didn't notice this during the broadcast as most of us were rightly focused on Harrison for falling down, but Semin's job there is to support the reload and most importantly, backcheck. As the high forward, there is zero reason he shouldn't be over the half ice line when the puck enters the net. His momentum alone would have given him a chance to break up that play had he not stopped skating.
Yes, this is only one play. I understand that. But I can't rightly pull up every example of Semin playing the way he has all year without it being part of a scoring play and have it available for everyone to see. Unfortunately, we're limited in that aspect. But Semin's shooting percentage has been unsustainable, just as Skinner's was during his streak. It's not that Skinner has stopped playing hard, it's just that at some point the results are going to stop coming. What gets you through those times is not better shots, but better outcomes. You grind through. You wait for the better outcomes to arrive. You don't modify your game. You don't change things up that have worked for you, especially as a veteran, when you know those things will make you successful. Semin is getting better outcomes, and I fear when those outcomes start falling more infrequently that people will attribute it to some kind of "let up" on his part.
