UPD: NHL announces Scott WILL captain the Pacific team

[Cali Panthers Fan]

It's just sad that it had to come to this. The NHL and John Scott could have handled this quietly behind closed doors, but Scott refused to play ball. I don't endorse publicly embarrassing someone like this, but Scott had an opportunity to do the right thing and blew it. That's just my opinion, but Scott knew he didn't belong and he shouldn't have pushed it by refusing to back out when asked.

[Brodie66]

Originally Posted by Yanda

It was lame that people campaigned for him to be in the ASG in the 1st place. Now I can enjoy the ASG for what it is, the best players in the world playing 3 on 3

Personally, I'd rather have Crosby on my team than Komarov

[Cali Panthers Fan]

Originally Posted by driveway

That's bull####. The NHL needs to pull its head out of its ass. The fans want John Scott, they gave us the vote, we picked Scott, give us Scott.

That means you. Fans that voted for John Scott ruined fan voting for everyone else. Now it will be left up to a few elites to decide for all time. Congratulations.

[N-E-B]

I never had a problem with Scott going. I thought of voting for him because I did think it was kind of funny but ended up going with Gaudreau instead.

If the NHL honours fan votes like they say they do, Gaudreau should be the captain.

[Jacks]

Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan

It's just sad that it had to come to this. The NHL and John Scott could have handled this quietly behind closed doors, but Scott refused to play ball. I don't endorse publicly embarrassing someone like this, but Scott had an opportunity to do the right thing and blew it. That's just my opinion, but Scott knew he didn't belong and he shouldn't have pushed it by refusing to back out when asked.

It's not really fair to Scott but his career is probably officially over now since MTL has no intention of playing him. Not that he had a big chance at another contract anyway but this probably seals it. Congrats everyone, good job.

[Brodie66]

Originally Posted by N-E-B

I never had a problem with Scott going. I thought of voting for him because I did think it was kind of funny but ended up going with Gaudreau instead.

If the NHL honours fan votes like they say they do, Gaudreau should be the captain.

No, John Scott should be captain

[driveway]

Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan

That means you. Fans that voted for John Scott ruined fan voting for everyone else. Now it will be left up to a few elites to decide for all time. Congratulations.

Oh, I think fan voting is stupid to begin with, but I think it's worse to provide the opportunity and then reneg on it.

Also, it's worth saying that I personally cast no all-star votes for anyone, but I thought it was hilarious that Scott was voted in and was actually kinda looking forward to watching him in the All-star game. Specifically, I was looking forward to Johnny getting him 2 goals and showing just how freaking amazing Johnny is.

The NHL should have let Scott play, then change the system next year. Take your lumps, don't act like the All-star game is actually important, or indicative of anything at all.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Wastedyouth

The only reason I was gonna watch the abortion that is the All Star game was for the novelty of Scott being there. I now no longer care about the game and will not watch. And I know i'm one of many many people who think the same thing.

I don't fathom how anyone could be entertained by John Scott playing in a high-end skills 3v3 tournament. He is a lousy skater with marginal hockey sense, and very poor puck skills. There is virtually nothing entertaining about Scott lumbering around, fumbling passes, and bumbling shots.

The novelty would have worn off suddenly.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan

That means you. Fans that voted for John Scott ruined fan voting for everyone else. Now it will be left up to a few elites to decide for all time. Congratulations.

Except that fan voting was ruined long before this. Fan voting was ruined the minute it was created. There are examples every single year from every single sport that fan voting is a failure. And it's because fans don't give a #### about anyone else's team except their own. They frequently do things to the detriment of the league and other fans.

Scott was no more embarrassing to me than Montreal voting themselves a starting line up.

I think it's shameful the NHL won't honour their own joke of a voting system. Furthermore how incompetent are they? The NFL NBA and MLB, and any other fan vote including things like the people's choice awards, would have just rigged the vote so that Scott would've lost. the NHL are such morons for letting him win in the first place.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

I don't fathom how anyone could be entertained by John Scott playing in a high-end skills 3v3 tournament. He is a lousy skater with marginal hockey sense, and very poor puck skills. There is virtually nothing entertaining about Scott lumbering around, fumbling passes, and bumbling shots.

The novelty would have worn off suddenly.

To be fair not a lot of people watch the All-Star game for the quality of hockey. And in Scott's case I think a lot of people saw an everyman making the All-Star game and were cheering for him.

It also occurred to me that All-Star game selection always sucks. When it was the media or whomever used to do it they always picked on reputation and seemed to skip guys who were just having good seasons but deserved to go.

[BlackWallStreet]

I originally didn't want Scott at the Allstar game. But imo this is bs

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

I think it's shameful the NHL won't honour their own joke of a voting system. Furthermore how incompetent are they? The NFL NBA and MLB, and any other fan vote including kings like the people's choice awards, would have just rigged the vote so that Scott would've lost. the NHL are such morons for letting him win in the first place.

They did this last time with Vote for Rory.

I actually can't believe people think this is somehow John Scott's fault for not bowing to the demands of the league to help them give the middle finger to the fans who bothered to vote. I wasn't among them, by the way; I would have preferred Domi make it. But others were, and they succeeded.

You got your damned page hits, NHL; plenty of them. That's why you do fan voting. That's why you allow people to vote multiple times. Now you want out? Go #### yourselves.

This is just the worst excuse for a pro sports league.

[trublmaker]

Originally Posted by Dogbert

Bettman didn't like Scott standing up for himself when he was told to drop out of the ASG, as he had the right to do. As a response, he stepped in and orchestrated Scott's trade and demotion to a team conveniently located at the opposite end of the continent, weeks before his wife was scheduled to give birth to twins. Not only does Scott not get to attend the event he was looking forward to attending (and likely forfeit the bonus that comes with it), he's forced to choose between relocating his heavily pregnant wife to literally the farthest-away location in North American hockey, leaving her behind to deal with her delivery and newborn care on her own, or breaching his contract and finding himself unemployed.

Far as I'm concerned, anyone who doesn't believe this is exactly what happened either doesn't know Gary Bettman's M.O., or is a complete moron. This isn't about the All-Star Game; it's about a petty, vindictive man unloading his Napoleon complex in full force on a player who did nothing more than stand up for himself.

or maybe it was just a hockey trade

[trublmaker]

Originally Posted by driveway

That's bull####. The NHL needs to pull its head out of its ass. The fans want John Scott, they gave us the vote, we picked Scott, give us Scott.

did you vote for him to troll him and the NHL or because you think he's an all-star ?

[corporatejay]

ASG is for children. Children don't want to John Scott. Right thing was done. The end.

[kerriffic]

Yeah i don't get some of the comments. I don't recall anyone being concerned when Zemgus Girgensons started in the all Star game last year. Did it dilute your all Star experience having to watch him? If the vote for Rory campaign hadn't suspiciously been altered in the last week would it have affected your experience if he had ended up playing?

Personally I haven't watched the all star game in years, I'll watch the skills competition with mild interest, but couldn't care less about watching a bunch of players coast around the ice during the all star game.

I really wish the NHL would actually go the route of MLB and make it count for something (like home ice advantage to the conference winner in the cup finals).

If you google the other leagues you'll see this happens every year, at one point in last year's mlb fan voting eight of the nine staring positions were for KC Royal's players before the mlb threw out a pile of votes.

So I guess either allow the fan vote or don't do it at all. It irks me that the vote was decided and then the nhl and phoenix decided to do some shady things to make the Scott situation "go away".

[JJ1532]

I think Scott deserved to go regardless of who voted for him to go and why. The NHL was happy to let Girgensons go last season after his home country voted like crazy for him and the NHL didn't have a problem with it. They should have realised their error then that the fan vote was being abused(quell surprise) and made changes to stop daft candidates getting voted in. This was always bound to happen. If it wasn't Scott this year, it might have been Bollig/Rinaldo/Dorsett/Neil next season.

They made a terrible mistake by letting fans vote, didn't learn their lesson and got embarrassed when Scott was voted in. I don't buy that it would have been humiliating for him to skate 3-on-3. Does anyone actually believe that the guys that are going will be busting their backsides off in this format, with them knowing how tiring it will be? It will be exactly the same as the regular format they've ran previously. Played at half pace with very little intensity. Scott could have easily kept up. I also don't think the other players would have gone out and embarrassed him, why would they?

The NHL should have just laughed it off and let it happen. Mistake made, oh well, never mind. Make changes to next years vote(as I believe they already have done), problem solved. We could all have laughed about it in a few years time.

But this is just another case of the NHL taking themselves(and the all star game) way too seriously. Its a boring pointless competition that plenty of fans don't even want and even fewer care about. The players care even less. Letting Scott go doesn't damage the legitimacy of this event. But all stopping him going does is embarrass them(and the Coyotes for letting the league pressure them into trading him).

They could have easily recovered from the "we made a mistake, we'll let him go, big deal, problem solved next year" solution. But instead they put pressure on the Coyotes and forced him out of the game in a really distasteful fashion. I hope Scott seeks advice from the NHLPA, because the way he's been treated by the league and the Coyotes(I mean, trading him just to stop him going to the all star game is pretty pathetic!) is shameful.

The NHL and the Coyotes don't come out of this with any credit at all. Yeah, I know this will all go away pretty quickly, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth and I do hope this isn't the last we've seen of this.

[MarkGio]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

To avoid this again, the NHL just needs to create a restricted list for fans to vote on. I don't know why would be stupid enough to not do this year after year

Well to be fair, fans are always going on about intangibles that a player brings. Who's one of the better Flames some nights, despite not being on the score sheet. I would have no problem with Stajan or Engelland going because hockey is a team game and wins are derived from 60 minutes of play, not just the few minutes that led to goals.

Was Scott selected as a troll? Probably. That doesn't take away the fact that not every player who attends this event necessarily belongs there more than others. Who knows, maybe Scott is so important to a locker room that you could argue his 2000+ minutes of presence creates more winning environment than the 30 goal plays on the ice that's given from guys like Kessel or Ryan.

Plus this is totalitarian by the league. I don't care; its their league and I'll still watch hockey, but I do think less of the executives.

[savemedrzaius]

In the past wasn't it common for a city to vote their entire roster to the All-Star game. One year I remember hearing the host city had 4 of their own players voted in to start the game. To me that is way worse. How is that any different of a "troll" job?

[Jacks]

Originally Posted by MarkGio

Was Scott selected as a troll? Probably. That doesn't take away the fact that not every player who attends this event necessarily belongs there more than others. Who knows, maybe Scott is so important to a locker room that you could argue his 2000+ minutes of presence creates more winning environment than the 30 goal plays on the ice that's given from guys like Kessel or Ryan.

First off you'll notice that Kessel and Ryan aren't in the game by a long shot.
John Scott helps create more of a winning environment than 30 goal scorers?

It was a troll vote done to make a mockery of the game.