John Scott, fan vote as captain, gets MVP at All-Star Game

Scott wasn’t one of the three choices fans were given for the all-star MVP award, but the league said he got an “overwhelming”, number of write-in votes via Twitter.

Fast forward three years and John Scott was voted into the NHL All-Star game as a result of the fan-voting that the NHL implemented over the last two All-Star games.

The NHL was embarrassed. I was skeptical at first as I thought the fans made a mockery of the game and John.

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The NHL All-Star weekend crowds along the bar-lined Broadway main drag next to Bridgestone Arena were nearly impossibly enormous and enthusiastic, making their way from bar to bar until the wee hours. But with the wonderful show the National Hockey League and the Nashville Predators put on here, the players had to have had a very special weekend.

Amazingly, Scott’s All-Star jersey outsold everyone else’s in Music City. Whether John Scott is a figure that people love, or hate, the All-Star weekend was clearly one that he enjoyed, and one that his peers, both players and coaches, felt he deserved.

It’s amusing how this joke played out. “It’s just… I’m going to tear up just talking about it. I’m so pregnant and emotional”, Danielle said.

“He’s probably on cloud 1,000”, Subban said of Scott. How about saying that at the next home game, fans will take a break from buying ludicrously overpriced beer to say, You know what, we’re not just going to sit here and take it when the league impugns the integrity of our team’s captain. “He truly deserves it. That’s the amusing thing; he deserves it”. And, let’s face it, a lot of people watching were cheering for the Pacific team’s captain, John Scott, because many had voted him in.

“It still hasn’t sunk in that I’m the MVP of the game”, Scott told ESPN’s Linda Cohn after the game. He loved it, too, and celebrated by getting down on one knee and pumping his right arm.

Scott only got nervous when Sharks defenseman Brent Burns, a former teammate and friend, caught him off guard and helped hoist the reluctant fighter into the air. Crawford went 9-2-0 with a 1.64 goals-against average, .952 save percentage and two shutouts in 11 contests and Letang led all defencemen with 14 points (three goals, 11 assists) over 10 games.

Scott, who had declined requests from the NHL and Arizona Coyotes to withdraw – and wasn’t sure he’d play after he was traded to Montreal and sent to the minor leagues – won a auto in fan balloting and the respect of teammates and opponents after the Pacific Division defeated the Atlantic, 1-0, to win the mini-tournament and split a $1-million prize.

At the conclusion of the final game, NBC’s Pierre McGuire interviewed Scott.

Not bad for a player who, at 33, returns this week to the reality of being in the AHL, with a wife and two children plus two more on the way.

Every Central and Atlantic All-Star lined up near the blue line for the MVP announcement. He looked amazed realizing he’d won.

“From what I saw on social media, it was a good success”, Andrews said of the NHL game during his State of the League briefing on Monday morning in Syracuse, where the AHL All-Star Game will be played Monday night.

“It’s one of those things where I never thought I’d be able to get to go, so when I found out it was a possibility my family was like, “you have to go”.