The NHL All-Star break is upon us, which marks the unofficial halfway point of the season.
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The man without a team got the main spotlight Friday at Media Day in Bridgestone Arena.
What is so interesting about this potential trio is that it is some of the best the National Hockey League has to offer from its past, present and future.
What a joke. Except, nobody’s laughing anymore. His wife, Danielle, is pregnant with twins. He suddenly became very human.
Scott will be the slowest and worst player on the ice by a mile.
“At 6’8” tall, Scott is a player known mostly for fighting on the ice – something he admits in a column he penned for The Players’ Tribune.
According to Scott, someone with the National Hockey League asked him: “Do you think this is something your kids would be proud of?”.
“They didn’t mince words – This is not a game for you, John – but I understood all the same”, Scott wrote.
Scott said he assumes the National Hockey League will tweak its voting process to avoid this sort of thing in the future. “I didn’t really like that feeling”.
Scott, a Michigan Tech engineering graduate, dislikes the goon label. They already know what the city and the organization are all about, and now they get to show it off.
He’s got two daughters under the age of 5.
“I’m an National Hockey League player – and, whatever my set of skills may be, that I’m an National Hockey League player is no accident”. He’s taken unfair treatment in stride, and brought way more attention to this game than it’s ever had before. “I’m going to enjoy it while I’m here and go back to the real world”.
Scott said Bettman did not mention the essay. “It’s nice to kind of get recognized for doing the grunt work in the game”.
For example: Brandon Dubinsky’s repeated assaults on Sidney Crosby that go (mostly) unpunished. “It’s really a derogatory term”.
“I think people have a persona of me”. “It’s not like the coaches are going to go out and say you’re going to do this and that”.
The claim is often made that the players don’t necessarily like the All-Star weekend. The league could have easily stopped this train long before it left the station. “Why not? He’s voted in”. He’s a fun-loving guy.
Does that make me an elite player?
“They’re going to decide that”, Gallant said of the players. That’s not good for the fans who go to see the Pro Bowl, nor the ones watching at home. “It’s nice to see it come to an end and enjoy the fruits of all that hardship that we dealt with”. That’s the case with Johnny. But getting there won’t be easy, as Jagr knows.
“The guy is like everybody else”.
Jagr has a chance to earn it this season; the Panthers are one of the NHL’s surprise stories this season. Last season, Latvian fans rallied the Internet to vote native son and Sabres forward Zemgus Girgensons into the game. It’s probably not going to happen again.
Scott, who also won everyone over with his affable nature despite some controversy over his being here, will compete in the hardest-shot competition Saturday in the skills competition. That’s the logical thing to do, right?
“It’s good for him”.
“He’s coming into town first-place in the National Hockey League, arguably the best team in the National Hockey League”, Poile said. “I’m in the Hardest Shot and something else”. They’re always editing the lists because some guys don’t want to do certain events.
The gathered media howled at that crack.
Despite this, Scott never stopped smiling, and managed to keep his positive attitude.
The Bruins will have an opportunity to return to action next week on a winning note with three games against the bottom-feeding Toronto Maple Leafs and Buffalo Sabres, before embarking mid-month on a 10-day, six-game western swing that could determine their postseason fate. I don’t know how I did because I can’t shoot the puck. “I just hope he doesn’t slash anybody”.
“I was playing on the third or fourth line on the Pittsburgh Penguins because we had so many great players, and the fans voted me in”, he said. “A lot of this stuff is undeserving, what he’s received as far as treatment. Whether the situation warrants another look and possible change to the rules will be evaluated and decided at a later time”.
“I hope the fans cheer and they’ll take it for what it is”, Scott said. I’m not the typical All-Star. Among defensemen, the results were even more skewed: The guys in the West-Rory among them-got 16 percent fewer votes overall.
John Scott shares a laugh with his teammates as he practices with the St. John’s Ice Caps, an AHL affiliate of the Montreal Canadiens, in Portland this week. And he was serious. Then he whipped out his phone. “All right. Don’t move”. Should he tell the NHL “Thanks, but no thanks?”
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He couldn’t stop smiling.
