No matter how much the NHL didn’t want this to happen, the incredible story of John Scott just might have saved the NHL All-Star Game.
Scott’s story was the feel-good movie of the year, that almost didn’t happen. The grass-roots vote to get the most unlikely player into the game, the trade that just smelled of the NHL pulling the puppet strings in Arizona, and the eventual banishment to the furthest reaches of Canada, all to keep Scott from the game.
The NHL had spoken and John Scott will not be an All-Star.
Except he was. The fans had spoken, the players had spoken, Scott himself had spoken. Even days before the event, and with Scott being well hidden in Newfoundland the NHL was hoping they’ve done enough to eliminate a thorn in their side.
The worst thing that could happen for the NHL was Scott actually performing well. Sunday night that fear came to fruition, except it had the opposite effect and the engineer turned hockey player saved a game that has lost interest among the most loyal of hockey fans.
Whether the NHL, and it’s weasle-like leader Gary Bettman, would admit it or not, they owe the All-Star game MVP more than the million dollar check.
They owe him a thank you.
Scott swept through the weekend with a gleaming smile, enjoying every second. The last enforcer was like a child in a candy store, smiling from war to ear, and secretly teaching every star and NHL executive what the game and weekend should be about.
While the league would threaten Scott, every player rallied around him. When league executives suggested his kids wouldn’t be proud of him, Jeremy Roenick ate crow on national TV. When the league left Scott’s name off the ballot for All-Star Game MVP, the fans wrote him in to win the award. From being banished to Newfoundland, to being carried off the ice as MVP.
With the NHL moving away from the enforcers, this might have been the last time we will see John Scott or anyone like him. So when the NHL asks, will your kids be proud of you? The answer is, the entire hockey community is proud of John Scott.
