In John Scott, the fans and the players sent Gary Bettman and the NHL brass a message

The fans spoke and John Scott
was on the bench in
Nashville for the All Star Game

As far as All Star Games go, Sunday's NHL All Star Game provided the kind of entertainment on the ice that made what's normally a going through the motions recreational skate into a meaningful afternoon of hockey.

A three tournament format of three on three that provided for any number of plot lines and twists, and may have finally delivered a  format for the league to make its mid-season client schmooze fest something the fans want.

Few hockey purists are sold on three on three hockey in the regular season and no one wants to see it ever find its way into the post season, where the game is won and lost on the ice without a gimmick.

However, in a showcase game such as what All Star weekend is all about, the format seemed to fit just right, the NHL somehow stumbled across what appears to be a winning combination, how they managed that many will wonder, but 3 on 3 worked in this instance and the league should be recognized for that.

However, because it's the NHL, they of course found a way to make sure that no one was talking about their genius, instead it was about their petulance prior to the weekend.

By the time the the last guitar lick had reverberated in Music City, the All Star format was the secondary story from Sunday. The real message and one that should be heard loud and clear by the NHL and those in the corner offices that rule the league, is that no one likes bullies and no one likes arrogant jerks.

Hockey fans and those players and coaches selected to the 2016 All Star collectively took off one of their gloves and raised one giant finger of defiance at a  league that created a fan voting system and then seemingly tried its best to deny the fans selection his turn in the spotlight.

Sunday, John Scott was the show, clearly not at the skill levels of some the names on sweaters beside him on the ice, but no one had more heart, few were as articulate in the face of a media storm and no one has endured more crap from a league that for whatever reason, insists on finding ways to self inflict wounds that need not be inflicted.

Scott was chosen by the fans, whether Gary Bettman and the league liked that thought is irrelevant, the competition was created by the league and the fans, whatever their motives may have been made their choice.

There never should have been a debate from that moment, instead the NHL the never ending factory of the "what the hell?", found a way to make sure the all star game became a controversy.

The all star game, an event that few are inclined to really think about at the best of times.

For the most part it's a three day corporate shill festival, one that each year seems finds that the players prefer to be left off of the roster, rather than be included. The beaches of Hawaii or other destinations for the players a welcome diversion with family and friends from the long grind of a season.

The controversy over Scott's inclusion in the weekend had many twists and turns in the last month.

First there was the odour of a trade and then demotion to the AHL that leaves him about as close to being put on an ice flow as you can get (and in Newfoundland he's not that far away actually), a move that seemed akin to a hit by the mob more than anything else.

Then this week, his first hand account to the Players Tribune as to the apparent attempt to shame him into turning down the invitation. Combined. the two  incidents make the league's handling of the entire episode to reflect the work of nothing but punks.

Though truth be told for many fans of the game it's about what one might expect from a league brass that constantly says they're for the good of the game and all about the fans, but more often than not, shows a complete inability to understand the fans of the sport, or the passion they have for the game and its players.

From the opening introductions on Sunday the theme of the day was set, the fans welcomed Scott like a conquering hero, the players who had already spoken to him prior to the weekend, making sure he felt welcome at the game carried that emphasis onto the ice.

His team mates on the Pacific side kept feeding him pucks, the coaches made sure that his shifts were frequent. His joy in the game clearly visible to anyone watching,  the atmosphere incomprehensible as it probably even seemed to Scott, was electric every time he stepped on for a shift, ecstatic with each of his two goals.

The evening wrapped up with the fans once again making sure that Commissioner Bettman and the NHL's other hangers on, perched up in the corporate booths heard one final farewell on the night, as the fans made one more significant vote on the day, selecting Scott as the MVP of the All Star Game.



By games end, as seems the case more and more often the NHL's brass realized far too late that they were on the wrong side of the story once again. Trying to salvage their horrid image by offering up some kind of revisionist history of the entire episode, suggesting that their only concern was to make sure that John Scott felt comfortable this weekend.

How nice of them, what a great bunch of guys, we imagine they were hoping we take away from the weekend.

And in reality, no one believes it, not one word of that came out of the Commissioner's mouth.

The league seems to not know this fact, but Hockey fans are pretty sharp observers of the game, they know skill and they know heart and both of those traits were on the ice.

There were other traits on display from the head office though and hockey fans know those as well and this week and particularly on a Sunday afternoon in Nashville, the hockey fans voted and John Scott won them over.

Gary Bettman and the league, well not so much ...

The tone deaf nature of the league time after time is on display, just ask the Mayor of Calgary who found his city being hectored to by the Commissioner in January over the theme of the need for a new arena for the Flames.

A choice of commentary that Mayor Naheed Nenshi noted to much applause across Canada, might work in other cities, but not in Calgary.

It was a sentiment that those across Canada would nod in agreement with, having heard the Bettman bombast before, Canadians perhaps calling to mind a hit of the past from Nashville favourite and Canadian country music star star Shania Twain.

Ms. Twain, seems to have captured the perfect Canadian reaction to the Commissioner whenever he speaks of late, that don't impress me much.

It was a big week for Mr. Bettman, as it was announced and promptly ignored as things turned out, that the Commissioner had received a contract extension a few months back, a pact which will take his leadership of the league into 2022, the announcement coming as it does close to Groundhog Day.

Some symbolic timing we suggest, particularly for a league where we hear the same things over and over again, indicating that when it comes to listening to the fans, the ears aren't always open and the messages not frequently received.

The Toronto Star -- All-Star MVP John Scott saved hockey, for a day
The Toronto Star -- John Scott hopes all-star MVP spotlight opens doors to new opportunities
Globe and Mail -- John Scott named NHL all-star MVP as Pacific Division wins tournament
Globe and Mail -- Bettman says fans spoke, so John Scott 'welcome' at all-star game
CBC -- John Scott scores 2 goals, wins MVP, proves he belongs in NHL all star game
Sportsnet -- John Scott scores 2 goals in All-Star Game, players happy for him
The Toronto Sun -- John Scott: 'You can't write this ... It's unbelievable'
Ottawa Citizen -- The NHL ditched its soul. John Scott found it for them
Detroit Free Press -- John Scott goes from unwanted to unbelievable
Arizona Republic -- All-Star Game caps Coyotes, John Scott issue
NPR -- John Scott Transcends Jokes, NHL Resistance and is Named MVP of All-Star Game

Last goal won.

The NHL all star game is regularly a hard to watch affair for the hockey purist, there’s little in the way of hitting, the players make far too many fancy passes and the intensity level is somewhere along the lines of the beer league midnight special.

So Sunday’s annual exercise of showcasing the stars (those that weren’t too lame or too tired to make it) once again played out mostly as expected.

While the third period at least provided some urgency to the affair, the previous two periods probably didn’t convert many to the game had they wandered onto the broadcast by mistake.

There was more drama following Tiger Woods around the course and he had a ten shot lead at one point of his run for his year opening Buick Open appearance, all while the East and the West were firing off shots at sacrificial goaltenders. As Woods was losing his focus on the course if only for a short period of time, perhaps his mind was wandering, wondering if the East could hold that 5-1 lead from the first, as things turned out they couldn’t.

The final twenty minutes were a flash of action, as the West evened the game up at 5 all early in the third. From there it was a rush for the last goal of the game as the teams traded opportunities and little in the way of defensive play on the way to the winning goal from former Thrasher Marc Savard with 20.9 seconds left to play.

That made the final score 8-7 in favour of the east, good enough to capture the bragging rights for this year and to put a set of keys to an SUV in the hands of Eric Staal.

There’s not much that the NHL can do about the format of the all star game, the non hitting nature of the event and the all out assault on the goaltenders is probably something that can’t be modified too much.

While it makes for an interesting experience, akin to watching a high octane practice, the return to the regular schedule is probably a welcome thing for the dedicated hockey fan, who probably got a little restless on Sunday watching periods one and two.

Perhaps even wandering over a click or two from time to time, to check up on Tiger, something that could be a common thing on Sunday’s should the regular season games begin to resemble Sunday’s all star skate fest.

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Globe and Mail--All-stars save best till last

Canoe--Event changes in the wind

National Post--Savard wins thriller for East

Canada.com--Marc Savard snatches win for East in All-Star game

Washington Post--Ovechkin Scores Twice, East Wins

ESPN--Embrace All-Star weekend for what it's supposed to be -- fun

Toronto Star--East narrowly beats West at NHL All-Star game

Time to holster the Young guns?

While he probably isn’t soliciting advice on how he runs his league, Gary Bettman might want to read some of the tea leaves coming out of this years all star break in Dallas.

While the actual all-star game was its typical high scoring, non hitting self, a Harlem Globetrotters like excursion into fancy passing and goal tender abandonment, the real chatter has been about the Young Stars game the night before. And, well Mr. Bettman, cover your ears, because the reaction has not been nice.

The consensus seems to be that the Young Stars showcase should be dumped, the contest which features the young up and coming talent in the NHL was described as a bit of an embarrassment by some, and a debacle by others. You would be hard pressed to find one article or conversation that said it was the event that made the break a success.

It’s not the fault of the youngsters; it’s the format and the concept that is at fault. The four on four thing is ok for a few minutes, but after a while it’s like watching a pre game warm up for sixty minutes, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass oh yeah somebody shoot. It’s as if the writers of the Simpson’s had designed their own form of sporting activity to make sport about.

Compared to the Top Prospects game the week before from Quebec City, Tuesday nights “game” was like pond hockey run amok. You ended up hoping that somebody would shoot the puck into a snow bank and the game would have to be called.

In the end the suggestion was made to increase the All-Star rosters to guarantee a set number of spots for the younger stars of the game, giving them the feeling that their on the main card and not on some wayward sideshow activity.

The skills competition was the highlight of the break, everybody loves to watch the hardest shot, the fastest skater and those pie plate target shooting masters. Perhaps the marketing gang at the NHL can dream up a few more events for that session and holster the Young Guns.

While the All Star game is a bit of a folly at the best of times, it won’t be going anywhere any time soon. Next year its Atlanta’s turn and then it’s back to Montreal to celebrate 100 years of Canadiens hockey.

Some suggest that perhaps the better move might be to invite the Top Prospects to tag along with the All Star traveling show. The problem with that idea though would be that the Prospects game with all of its intensity would probably overshadow the big boys, so we’re not likely to see that anytime soon.

For now, the league needs to look back at what worked and what didn't these last few days, the Edmonton Sun's Jim Matheson , Hockey Night in Canada's Scott Morrison and Sports Illustrated's Kostya Kennedy offer up their advice.

Skils and thrills, or rumours of same.

For those that keep track of these things, Canoe has provided a recap of the Tuesday night skills competition. Which while helpful, isn't exactly the most exciting mode of transmitting the details of the first events of All Star week.

You can also head over to the NHL website, which has some streaming video of the some of the events of All Star week including a red carpet procession and of course the opening address of the Commissioner. (Helpful hint: select the high end versions of the videos, much easier to watch)

We still await some video of the actual skills competion, which has yet to be posted anywhere that we could find.

All of this makes us feel much like the early settlers of North America, waiting patiently for word to come of great events in far off locales.

The Fitzpatrick conspiracy

The campaign to put Vancouver Canuck Rory Fitzpatrick into an all star sweater has suddenly hit a little internet turbulence. As the fan favourite who was packing away the votes a week ago, this week finds himself dropping down the list of the most wanted for Dallas.

Now conspiracy buffs will have visions of Gary Bettman and a gaggle of NHL VP’s sitting up late into the night, voting early and voting often, to make sure that the vision of Fitzpatrick donning an all star uni doesn’t come to pass.

This current all star voting process, which uses a process of one fan, many votes, now seems to have about as much reliability as a Florida presidential vote count, and we all remember how well that worked out!

The debate reached the point of nastiness over the weekend as both Don Cherry and Kelly Hrudey; CBC commentators on Hockey Night in Canada called the campaign for Fitzpatrick a bit of a joke.

Now while we can see Hrudey being computer literate enough to probably stay up late to sway some votes, the possibilities of Don Cherry successfully negotiating the keyboard to scupper Fitzpatrick seems remote.

But, over at the NHL offices, well you can sense the panic in the air at the possibility of the under achieving Canuck defenceman edging out a Niklas Lidstrom, Scott Neidermayer or Chirs Pronger.

With the latest results now tabulated, Fitzpatrick has dropped to third place, Scott Niedermayer of the Anaheim Ducks leads the defencemen with 540,380 votes, followed by Nicklas Lidstrom of the Detroit Red Wings at 522,345. Fitzpatrick has earned 486,842 votes.

If this were a game of Clue, the answer very well could be; Gary Bettman, in the office with a keyboard.

Crosby's star shines brightly

Sidney Crosby is doing to the all star balloting process what he does to opposition teams, beginning to dominate the action. Crosby is in a commanding lead as the balloting continues to select the starting all stars for the 2007 All Star Game in Dallas next year.

With 747,332 votes "The Kid" is the most popular choice to pull on an all star uniform on January 24th, his next closest compatriot is Washington's Alexander Ovechkin who has tallied 427,654 votes thus far in balloting.

The Western stats will be released on Wednesday, but it's expected that Vancouver's Rory Fitzpatrick will continue to rack up the votes as an intensive Internet campaign to have him selected to the Western team continues on at full speed. At last count he had pulled in over 420,000 votes thanks to his moment of fame on the Internet, this despite the outspoken chastisements of both Don Cherry and Kelly Hrudey on Saturday nights Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts.

Both Cherry and Hrudey suggested that the idea of Fitzpatrick being named to the all star team was a bit of an embarrassment and both seemed to recommend that he politely decline the offer and not accept the draft should the Internet campaign prove to be in his favour.

While both Cherry and Hrudey are popular with the hockey public, they may find that the move to place Fitzpatrick on an all star roster is even more popular than them. So far the numbers in favour of Fitzpatrick's place in Dallas seem to show that the fans don't always listen to their commentators as much as the commentators may think they do.

Roaring to get Rory to the all star game

He hasn’t played a game in a month, he’s at best a journeyman player in the NHL and if the ballot stuffing ways of the internet are any indication, Rory Fitzpatrick could very well be an all star selection by the time they drop the puck in Dallas in January.

Fitzpatrick who probably is at best at the lower end of the defensive depth chart on the Canucks, presently finds himself more in demand than Chris Pronger (perhaps he has a large fan base in Edmonton eh) Sergei Zubov and Dion Phaneuf (again that Edmonton base), If he’s looking to mail out a thank you card he direct his mail towards a Buffalo hockey fan, who has been busy pumping up Fitzpatrick for the game.

Steven Schmid launched the vote for Rory campaign with a website that seems to have caught the attention of hockey fans. Fitzpatrick from near by Rochester, NY is apparently a crowd favourite in Northern New York and they all seem to be computer literate. So far the site has received over 102 thousand hits as hockey fans browse the site to learn more about the sports most in demand write in candidate.

The Canuck’s have even gotten in on the act, not only have his team mates voted early and voted often, but the team has been busy producing Vote For Rory tee shirts for sale at Canuck games, a move that is sure to bring a phone call from the league head office in the not too distant future.

While it’s all in good fun, and Fitzpatrick would be living out the dream of every Canadian (or American) kid that ever put on a pair of skates, the fact that he’s even in the running points out how far the all star game has fallen as far as being a meaningful event. Back in the day, it was a battle between the league’s best players and the Stanley Cup champions, form there the conference system came into place where East would play West in a no hit, figure skating display of pass the puck.

The all star game doesn’t have much in relation to the NHL of today, even with the crackdown on violence and fouls. It very much is simply a skills competition, one which normally a journeyman wouldn’t be attending as a participant.

But as the votes roll in, Fitzpatrick gained 113,509 votes this week alone, more than any other Western Conference player, there’s every chance that Rory will be there on game day.
While it seems foolish in a way, still perhaps Fitzpatrick would appreciate the invite more than some of the higher salaried stars who seem to treat the game like an imposition on their vacation time.

Fitzpatrick is currently sidelined form the Canucks lineup after taking a hit on his ankle on November 6th, he might want to keep an eye on Gary Bettman between now and January, you never know when Bob Clarke may be sent over the boards.

In the end the NHL has nobody to blame but themselves, they created the system which left them ripe for ridicule. If each team were to end up with their own Rory Fitzpatrick nominated it might be a wake up call to make the game more meaningful.


However, in a sport crying out for media attention in the USA, the saga of Rory Fitzpatrick is gaining them much attention. It may not be exactly what they wanted, but as they say as long as you spell the name right…