For those of you not very interested in the NHL, you possibly missed one of the most amazing story lines in all of sports this year. This past weekend, from Jan. 29 until Jan. 31, was the NHL All-Star Weekend in Nashville, Tennessee. Usually this weekend isn't taken very seriously by either hockey fans or even the players. But this year was very different, and that was because of one player: John Scott.
This whole story started back in December, when the NHL released the fan voting for the captains of the All-Star Game. In recent years, the NHL has felt that, in order to get the fans involved in the All-Star Weekend, a fan vote to determine who plays in the game would be best. It's worked pretty well the past couple of years, but with the format of All-Star Weekend being changed, they had to change the fan vote as well. With each division playing against one another three-on-three, the fan vote became for the captains of each division.
It started out with players you would expect, like Patrick Kane and Alexander Ovechkin, but soon we saw a very interesting name for the captain of the Pacific division: Phoenix Coyotes forward John Scott.
Scott has been in the league for a while now. He's bounced from team to team for about 10 years. He isn't known so much for his skills on the ice as he is for his fighting ability. Scott is an enforcer (i.e., a fighter), so seeing his name pop up as the most voted-for player in the Pacific division was very strange.
Many people believed it was a joke, but as it gained traction more and more people felt strongly about the idea. That was when the NHL took notice. It wasn't long before Scott was called into an office and traded to the Montreal Canadiens, a team in the Eastern conference and on the opposite side of the country. Scott was obviously shocked: the Coyotes were doing well and he had a family there – a wife (who is 9 months pregnant) and two daughters. They were going to have their whole lives uprooted so that the NHL could "save face" and not have Scott as the Pacific division captain.
Scott was even sent down to Montreal's minor team so that he would not be able to play in the All-Star Game. Once fans got wind of this, there was an uproar. NHL fans made themselves heard and said that they wanted Scott in the All-Star Game. That was when the NHL tried a different tactic.
Scott had just received his gloves for the All-Star Game as the fan vote was finished. He and his Coyotes teammates were looking at them when Scott was pulled aside by the team's general manager. Scott was asked whether he thought that playing in the All-Star Game would be something his kids would be proud of. The NHL was now trying to use Scott's children against him – to guilt-trip him into quitting the All-Star Game. He wasn't up to the NHL's All-Star standard, and they sure wanted him to know it.
That was the breaking point. Not long after, Scott wrote a wonderful article for The Players' Tribune titled "A Guy Like Me," explaining what had happened and why he would be participating in the All-Star Game. It was after the release of this article that people really started to take notice. Finally seeing what the NHL was trying to do, people backed Scott like never before.
Once the festivities started in Nashville, Scott received the biggest cheers; he had the largest media crowd and was treated like an All-Star. It was the opposite of how the NHL had treated him just a couple of weeks prior. Anyone could tell that Scott was having the time of his life. He made the media pose for a picture after his press conference because he had never had that many people asking him questions before. He just wanted to soak it all in.
Everyone was eagerly anticipating the Pacific team's debut against the Central division. Many were hoping to see Scott play well, as he had defied the odds up to that point. And they were surely not disappointed. Scott ended up scoring two goals in that first game against the Central division. He also ended up fighting his old teammate, Patrick Kane, much to the delight of the Nashville crowd, which cannot stand the Chicago Blackhawks (Kane's team).
The Pacific team won their first game of the day and headed on to face the Eastern conference's Atlantic division. It was a tight game, with no scoring until Anaheim Duck's forward Corey Perry found a hole in Ben Bishop's goaltending. The sold-out arena cheered loudly, excited to see the Pacific team win the game. Scott was hoisted onto his teammates' shoulders.
There was only one thing left to do: award the most valuable player of the game. This was another award chosen by the fans, and guess who ended up being the winner? That's right, the one and only John Scott. He won as a write-in vote, as the NHL did not put him on the ballot. The arena exploded into cheers upon hearing the announcement, and every player on the ice gave hearty stick-taps. It seemed like justice when NHL commissioner Gary Bettman came out onto the ice and handed Scott a $1,000,000 check and the keys to a brand new car.
The most unlikely player ended up being the MVP of the entire league that weekend. John Scott brought a sense of life and fun to the All-Star Weekend that hadn't been there in years. Players and fans alike agreed that it was one of the best All-Star Weekends in years, thanks to the atmosphere John Scott helped to create. It was a weekend and a story for the ages, one that will be told many times over: the story of how one player stood up to an entire league, despite all the hardships, and was then rewarded for it. This one's for you, John Scott: the real MVP of the underdogs and outcasts. Not in just the NHL, but beyond.
