John Scott, yes the John Scott that benefited from the “movement” that launched him to the top vote getter for the NHL All-Star Game, wrote am article on The Player’s Tribube detailing the insane string of events that he’s experienced over the past month and a half.
Seriously click, read his remarkable piece, then come back.
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Now… John Scott, as he describes, has never been a great hockey player. He knows that, and the rest of the league knows exactly who he is. While he might be a dinosaur in today’s game, he has had a job in the NHL since the 2008-09 season, and that’s says something.
He has never been the type to ask why me, he’s never begged for more playing time, and he’s embraced his role in order to keep playing in the NHL, and from all accounts has cherished every second.
As an enforcer he’s given more to the game than the game is prepared to give him.
This is what makes the NHL’s reponse to him even more infuriating. When you have guys like Bob Probert, who was talented and was valued, die with significant brain trauma because of the game. Then look over this list of guys (a lot of them also enforcers) that took their own life after their time in the game, and presumably due to the possibilities of brain trauma.
Now we have the NHL in a position to tip their hats to a guy that will be out of the league (very possibly sooner with the All-Star fiasco) sooner, rather than later.
“You just got traded.”
Nope. No way.
“You’re shitting me.”
I hear him perfectly the first time, but I need him to say it again.
“We just traded you to Montreal. Yeah.”
My mind is racing a mile a minute. I know exactly what’s happened.
Still, I can’t help myself.
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
Enforcers don’t get traded midseason when their team is winning. If you know the league, you know that it just doesn’t happen.
“I’m not sure what to say, John. This is how it goes. We’re trying to make our team better. We had a chance to get a player, and we took it.”
While the exchange between John and his now old GM Don Maloney gives you insight into the pain one can feel when being told they are traded, but it is especially hurtful for a guy like John. A guy that is barely holding onto his dream, and a family at home with two young girls who don’t exactly understand why daddy is leaving or why they have to change schools again.
Scott also isn’t a very rich guy either. While sure, he’s paid north of $500,000 this season, and each and every single one of us reading this would love to earn that much any year, he doesn’t know if he’ll make his way back to the league next year. Hell he doesn’t know if he’ll spend another day on an NHL roster this season. The point here is, a guy like Scott can’t afford the vagueness of his job security, nor the constant moves.
You hear players say they work every day because tomorrow isn’t a guarantee, but I don’t know if a guy like Sidney Crosby really, actually knows how the pressure of needing to work harder than anyone else in hockey just to keep a job, feels.
“Do you think this is something your kids would be proud of?”
That is John’s life, he literally has to work harder than anyone in the league to keep his job. That is what his kids and hockey fans will be proud of him for.
