11 Best Moments of John Scott’s All-Star MVP Weekend

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Many saw the nomination of John Scott to the All-Star Game as a joke. They thought he’d be sucking air trying to keep up and be an eye sore on the ice.

They were wrong.

Scott, captain of the Pacific Division, was the focal point of the weekend. He was funny, had a good time and was surprisingly effective for the Pacific Division team, who won the 3-on-3 tournament. As Scott said in the post-game press conference, “You can’t make this stuff up.”

He was good enough and entertaining enough to put together 11 memorable moments from the 2016 All-Star Game.

11. Sidekick Brent Burns

From taking a picture with the John Scott puck outside Bridgestone Arena to the bear hug after Scott’s second goal, Brent Burns was Scott’s biggest champion throughout the weekend. He helped to make it an all-together enjoyable All-Star Game.

10. Chirping Jeremy Roenick

Roenick was one of many pundits who were outspoken about not liking Scott being part of the game. Roenick had the misfortune interviewing Burns and Scott between periods. But, to Roenick’s credit, he owned it and brought it up in the interview. Good on Scott ofr taking the past insult in stride and taking the opportunity to chirp Roenick a bit.

9. Skills Competition

Scott was fun in the skills competition, even if he was overshadowed by Jaromir Subban, Burns’s kid and other shenanigans. Scott’s highlight? Going for the spin-o-rama in the shootout. He also registered a 95.8 mph slapshot in the hardest shot competition, beating Aaron Ekblad.

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8. Fighting Patrick Kane

Kane and Scott are former teammates and had some fun at each other’s expense a couple times over the course of the weekend. The two had a fake scrap at the end of a great sequence in their opening game of the tournament. Scott checked Kane, knocking him to the ice, took the puck and went in on a breakaway. He didn’t score and the result was a break headed the other way where Kane did score. Kane immediately dropped the gloves for a battle with Scott.

On the play, Scott was credited with a hit on Kane, which was just the second hit registered in an All-Star Game since 2003.

7. Getting the Check from Bettman

A part of the weekend’s storybook ending for fans and Scott was that after the league tried to get him out of the game, 5-foot-7 Gary Bettman had to hand over a $1-million check to the 6-foot-8 Pacific Division captain.

6. The Player’s Tribune Article

Scott pre-empted the All-Star Game with an article at the Player’s Tribune that brought everyone onto his side. He talked about the league using his kids in an effort to get him to step down and how he came to embrace being voted into the All-Star Game unexpectedly. It’s a great piece outlining why he decided to play, how he hopes his kids are proud of him and why he was playing for every grinder out there who never got recognition like this.

It’s worth a read.

5. Team Lifts Him

Scott took the post-championship interview with Pierre as the captain of the winning team. He got some big cheers, was humble and then had his interview interrupted by teammates lifting all 260 pounds of him into the air.

4. Laughing at Kane

The former teammates didn’t just scrap together, they made for one of Scott’s more charming moments early in the weekend. When the players were introduced, Patrick Kane’s name was met with loud booing. Those boos were almost as loud as the cheers that Scott’s name drew and Scott thought that was pretty funny.

Later Scott said that Kane called it before it happened. He knew he’d get booed and that Scott would get some big cheers.

3. Goal #2

The second of Scott’s two goals was a beauty. Burns hit him with the stretch pass to get the breakaway going and Scott went shelf on Devan Dubnyk.

2. Goal #1

It wasn’t as pretty as his second goal, but Scott potted his first less than a minute into the Pacific Division’s first game. The man gave the fans everything they wanted. He also celebrated like a boss.

1. John Scott, MVP

It was a perfect cap to the most watchable All-Star weekend in recent memory: John Scott was named MVP.

This is not how anyone thought this weekend would turn out. The best part of this may be that Scott was a legitimate option for MVP. He was captain of the tournament champs, tied for first in goals and looked ok out there. Even better: He appears to have no idea that he was voted MVP when the announcement is happening.

Bonus

After the game Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that Scott’s helmet was taken from him and will be headed to the Hockey Hall of Fame.

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