Take this for what it’s worth but retired NHL enforcer John Scott has just tweeted that NHL camps will begin again June 1.
Scott, who is a very popular and connected former player, added that “European players are coming back soon.”
By Ian Oland 3 months ago
John Scott will be remembered forever by NHL fans for two big moments. In 2017, Scott was named All-Star MVP after a fan campaign voted the behemoth enforcer into the midseason event despite the NHL’s objections. The second was Scott’s preseason fight with Phil Kessel in 2013, which saw the overmatched Leafs star wield his hockey stick like a sword to try and elude Scott’s bear-like paws.
Scott, now retired after 10 professional seasons, has a podcast and gave the full story behind the Kessel fight last week.
According to Scott, the fight was the result of a game of chicken between him and then-Leafs coach Randy Carlyle. After the Leafs’ Jamie Devane “beat the doors off” the Sabres’ Corey Tropp and breaking his jaw, an enraged Scott told Carlyle he would fight whichever player lined up across from him during the next faceoff.
“Carlyle gives me this little grin and then he sends out the first line,” Scott said. “I can’t imagine what’s going through their head as they go on the ice because I’m like Red Ross. I’m just like ‘Oh my gosh.’ He sends out Kessel and a bunch of skill guys. And I’m just like, ‘What do I do? What do I do?’
Scott went forward with his promise and the rest is history.
The glorified three-on-three hockey tournament the NHL is calling the All-Star Game now has its captains. On Saturday afternoon, the NHL announced that Washington’s Alex Ovechkin will captain the Metropolitan Division all-star team.
The first round of players named to the all-star game also includes Jaromir Jagr, Patrick Kane, and John Scott. Along with Ovechkin, those players will serve as captains of their respective divisional teams.
Kane leads all players in points this season, Jagr leads all active players in career points, Ovechkin is one of the best scorers of all-time, and John Scott is a half-funny, half-cruel prank concocted by online fan voting.
O’Brien signs his first NHL contract.
It always seems there’s one player at every camp who comes out of nowhere to make the team. Last season it was Connor Carrick. This season it was undrafted free-agent invitee Liam O’Brien.
The forward/two-time WWE champion, who managed just 42 goals in 261 junior games, did not get signed by Brian MacLellan to a three-year entry-level contract because of his scoring prowess. It was his tenacity and grit.
All of O’Brien’s strengths came through during Tuesday’s 6-5 shootout loss to the San Jose Sharks. O’Brien tallied his first NHL point in his third NHL game and also got a bunch of media coverage for taunting bear-on-skates John Scott.
Photo: @trilljester
San Jose Sharks enforcer John Scott is probably one of the worst hockey players in the league. The 6’8″ left wing plays in the NHL only because of the traits he shares with a grizzly bear, except on the ice. Remember that one time Phil Kessel wielded his stick like a three musketeer? It was because Scott — who was playing for the Sabres at the time — was trying to send the Maple Leafs a message by trying to fight their best player.
San Jose Sharks coach Todd McLellan gave that his first sweater of the season on Tuesday. And he scored. On Brooks Orpik. Easily.
Photo illustration by me
Sunday’s preseason game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Buffalo Sabres turned into a sideshow, as a line-brawl broke out after the very tall John Scott tried to fight the comparatively tiny but still feisty Phil Kessel. Instead of dropping mitts with Scott, Kessel used his hockey stick, taking a few two-handed swings at the Sabres enforcer as if Scott were a Mariano Rivera fastball.
Naturally, the Caps media asked former Maple Leaf and new Washington Capitals 2C Mikhail Grabovski his thoughts on Kessel’s handy-work.
