A few weeks ago, the name John Scott didn’t carry with it much weight or significance. Now, after an old fashioned and extremely public David and Goliath style battle with the NHL, and a storybook All Star weekend, John Scott is somewhat of a cult hero. The story is one that spans from Phoenix, Arizona to Newfoundland, Canada, and finally ends up in Nashville, Tennessee.
A career journeyman and tough guy plying his trade for six different NHL teams over seven years, Scott’s skill never really did the talking. Racking up 11 points for NHL superstars like Patrick Kane or Tyler Seguin might mean a hot streak of seven or eight games. For John Scott, racking up 11 points took 285 games and a couple stints in the AHL. That’s not to say that John Scott’s role on a team hadn’t already been firmly established soon after he entered the NHL. The 6-foot-8, 250-plus pound behemoth would have to know (as well as his coaches and teammates) that he would remain in the NHL as an intimidator and an enforcer, if he were lucky enough to carve a niche role for himself on an NHL team. It’s important to note that it is becoming increasingly hard to remain in the NHL in this capacity as the league has begun to discourage fighting and put a greater emphasis on player safety.
Nonetheless, Scott has remained in the NHL for several years through working hard, knowing his role and having the crucial support of his wife and family, necessary for him to live out this unexpected dream to play professional hockey. Scott’s meteoric rise to superstardom this year came from a campaign by fans to get him to the All-Star Game. Low and behold, and to the dismay of the NHL, the campaign and the power of the fans eventually voted Scott in and named him a captain for the game.
What happened next was a whirlwind of events that included a NHL attempt to coerce Scott to back out of the game and his unexpected trade to the Canadiens who would immediately send him down to their AHL affiliate. This was clearly seen as an attempt to make it almost impossible for Scott to participate in the game. However, the public responded and the NHL was eventually beaten by the will of the people and Scott’s fellow NHL players who had his back.
Scott’s ability to play in the game in the face of some significant opposition and frustration from the NHL hinged on a combination of tongue-in-cheek support. But, as the narrative progressed, backlash against what many people saw as harsh and unfair lengths that the NHL went to in order to keep him out of the game propelled Scott’s rise.
The biggest inconvenience imposed on Scott was the trade supposedly orchestrated by the NHL that dislocated his family members from Phoenix with very little notice and sent them to a remote location in Canada while his wife was pregnant with twins. Obviously this put a tremendous amount of stress on his family, which Scott talks about in a piece he wrote for the Players’ Tribune.
What stands out the most from the article is the sense that John Scott wanted to show people how what he was portrayed on TV, by the NHL and by the media, does not capture his character. He identifies as a father, a hardworking former student who was studying for a career in engineering and a loving husband who understands the stress and difficult circumstances that his family is often in as a result of his profession. There is a sense from his article that it irks him when he gets pigeon holed or identified as an unskilled brute who doesn’t have a place in the league. Because, let’s be honest, he may not be the most skilled player in the NHL, but he’s still in the NHL.
What can be lost in these types of story lines and the ensuing media frenzy, especially early on when the player embroiled in the story hasn’t had a chance to give his account, is the humanity of the person involved. A lot of times as sports fans, I think we fail to recognize the fact that at the end of the day professional athletes are regular people with a lot of the same worries that we have. This is especially true when it comes to players who never planned on playing professionally.
John Scott took an opportunity with the article he wrote to give his side of the story and to help people to see him for what he actually is, which is a hardworking individual who has fought tooth and nail for everything he has. He got a scholarship to play hockey after consistently being discouraged by people that he wouldn’t do anything with the sport. At the same time, he was realistic and saw college as a way for him to get an engineering degree and then set himself up with a relatively comfortable job. But he got a once in a lifetime opportunity to play professional hockey and seized it, like anyone else in his situation would most likely do. Sure, it takes hard work, grit, determination and a little bit of luck to make it to the NHL; but it also takes skill, a fact which Scott points out in his article. All the same, John Scott cherishes every night that he gets to put on that NHL jersey and live out the dream of every boy from his hometown of St. Catharine, Ontario.
The significance of this story doesn’t just speak to hockey fans. The overall significance of this story as a whole is simple. John Scott didn’t think he’d be playing in the NHL but he is. He didn’t ask to be in the All-Star Game either, in fact he even agreed with the NHL that he didn’t necessarily belong among the NHL’s best and didn’t want his participation in the game to distract from their accomplishments. But in an unlikely series of events, John Scott got the chance to capture the hearts and minds of hockey fans and prove to the NHL that he does belong, whether that be as an enforcer on an NHL team or a continued inspiration for his kids and for others. •a
