Did John Scott being named a team captain at the NHL All-Star Game give hope to players like the New York Rangers Tanner Glass that anything is possible?
By Patrick Comia
So the NHL gave the power of the vote to the people, in deciding the four captains to represent the four divisions in this year’s NHL All-Star Game.
Indeed a great privilege. Captains Patrick Kane, Alex Ovechkin and Jaromir Jagr are calling their appointments a great honor, and they are deserving.
However, there is one axe to grind. That is John Scott.
A player who has seen a total of 11 games this season. A player who has been traded and is sitting in the Montreal Canadiens organization waiting for his opportunity to play in front of the crowd at the Bell Centre.
Oh by the way, Scott’s last game in the NHL was back on Dec. 31 of last year, according to NHL.com.
It’s a farce that his name was even considered in the fan voting, let alone be a team captain. Has he played in enough games to even know how a three-on-three situation works?
Nothing against Scott being in the care-free hockey exhibition that is set to be staged in Nashville, TN.
It’s not his fault that fans thought fondly of him to captain a porous Pacific Division that is under performing outside of the resurgent Los Angeles Kings.
No, the fans voiced their opinion. Despite the back-and-forth treatment that has occurred, Scott has a front row seat to one of the NHL’s most commercialized and ridiculous spectacle in the sport.
However, out of this year’s democratic debacle that is the NHL voting process, there is positivity amid the chaos.
With this “power of the people” voice that commissioner Gary Bettman has bestowed this year, there is a hope for a player like Tanner Glass to make something out of nothing. After this year’s voting fiasco, his office is sure to reevaluate the process and make needed amendments.
So what is this hope for Glass being mentioned?
Well if the powers that be continue along this “fair” road of allowing hockey fans to write in their desired player for future All-Star games, chances increase for players like Glass.
Despite living through the torturous criticism from fans of the New York Rangers, he’s still on the team and playing with regularity.
In his eight-year career, Glass has only played below 50 games twice (41 with the 2007-2008 Florida Panthers and 48 with the 2012-2013 Pittsburgh Penguins). During that time, he has been more productive than Scott ever has: 20 goals, 42 assists compared to five goals, six assists.
This season, Glass has played in 12 more games as Scott including being sent down on waivers to the Hartford Wolf Pack and being recalled to Broadway. That tells you the importance a player like Glass means to the Rangers (mainly Alain Vigneault).
It’s surprising that Scott would be honored with an all-star vote and not Glass. Ok, it was a joke vote-in, an example of how the NHL’s exhibition game is looked at as a comedy show, and not taken seriously.
But, the burden falls on the Rangers fan. If Scott could garner votes from the Arizona Coyotes fanbase and have the idea pick up steam, the Blueshirts Faithful should have voiced their opinions and nominated Glass. And for those few who believed in the rugged fourth-liner’s abilities, you are to be commended for your right to stand up and be accounted for.
Forget Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, Claude Giroux, Evgeni Malkin, Henrik Lundqvist, or any other superstar in the Metropolitan.
The answer was, and should have been, Glass all along.
