Arizona Coyotes: John Scott The Lone All-Star Representative For Coyotes
Arizona Coyotes forward John Scott won the fan vote and was named captain of the Pacific Division team in the 2016 NHL All-Star game in Nashville. He is the Coyotes lone representative for the event.
Arizona Coyotes enforcer John Scott was the beneficiary of an internet-wide fan campaign to get him selected from the 2016 NHL All-Star game. Unfortunately, his selection prevented star defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson and rookie sensation Max Domi from participating in the event.
John Scott has career marks of 285 games played, with five goals and six assists to total 11 points. He’s also acrrued 542 penalty minutes in that time span.
The question from the outset of the campaign was whether John Scott deserved to play in the All-Star over any other team’s star players. After all, with 11 points in 285 games, it’s fair to say that statistically John Scott doesn’t fit that bill.
Throwing punches is his specialty and he’s pretty effective at his job.
With his surprising win of the fan vote and captaincy of team Pacific, though, the Arizona Coyotes received no other selections from the NHL for the All-Star event.
Was the Coyotes’ indifference or inability to convince John Scott to step down for a more “proper” candidate the reason for this? Or was it simply because the players picked ahead of Domi and Ekman-Larsson were having better seasons?
In the case of Max Domi, the rookie may have just been the odd man out.
While Domi has quickly won the hearts of Coyotes faithful, he has also not scored a goal since December 4th and only has five points in his last 13 games after such a torrid start.
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He was battling for a spot among names like Johnny Gaudreau and Taylor Hall, and presumably lost a chance at the spot Corey Perry was put in due to the lack of other Anaheim Ducks to nominate.
For Oliver Ekman-Larsson the reasoning is a little more murky.
While Brent Burns is having a scintillating season offensively and was a shoo-in candidate, OEL has three more points than Mark Giordano and the Coyotes have been ahead of the Flames for most of the duration of the 2015-16 season.
Giordano’s selection is even more surprising because his season is the inverse of Max Domi’s. Giordano was likely not even on the radar until he managed four goals and seven assists in his past eight games.
While he is certainly an elite defenseman, it’s hard to explain his appearance and Ekman-Larsson’s absence when you consider that the Flames are also represented by the talented Johnny Gaudreau meanwhile the Coyotes are represented by a candidate voted in as a joke.
For a league that insists that they want the Arizona Coyotes to grow, this doesn’t feel like a positive step in that direction.
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Despite the circumstances, John Scott seems assured of being the main attraction in Nashville.
For a man whose role is continually being pushed to the fringes of the NHL, there seemed to be no question for Scott about whether to accept the captaincy.
Scott said he had discussed the possibility of being voted in with enforcers and agitators and decided, “It’s kind of nice. I’ve grinded out a career here. It’s not easy being the odd-man out a lot, the odd-man in.”
For him, it’s not just a personal matter. “I hope all the guys that have been in my position can grasp this and say, ‘Hey, we did something.’”
I can respect that. Even if I’ll miss seeing a deserving Arizona Coyotes player get a chance to shine in front of the entire NHL.