John Scott wasn’t feeling well the day of the 2016 NHL All-Star Game so he took a nap.
As he told Tim Graham of The Buffalo News, it nearly cost him his chance at all-star glory.
“I almost missed the game,” Scott said, almost three months after the event which led to the 33-year-old being lifted onto the shoulders of his all-star teammates.
Luckily for Scott, a phone call 20 minutes before his Pacific Division’s first game woke the 6-foot-8 enforcer from his slumber, and he shuffled off to Bridgestone Arena which was across the street from his hotel room.
“I didn’t realize all the teams warm up at the same time,” said Scott, who said the phone call came from an NHL employee. “I would have gone there really early and hung out and experienced it and got some autographs.
“I didn’t even tape my stick. I didn’t tie my skates that well. I just jumped right on the ice.”
Scott of course did play, and much to everyone’s joy he managed to score two goals while captaining the Pacific Division to victory in the NHL’s new 3-on-3 format. The fans, who voted him in the game in the first place, threw their support behind the underdog once again by voting him as the game’s MVP.
The night before, he participated in the hardest shot competition, topping out at 95.9 m.p.h., ahead of Florida’s Aaron Ekblad and Dallas’ Tyler Seguin.
“In the skills competition you sit around and sit around and can stew and then have one 10-second thing you need to do,” Scott said.
“If I went out there and embarrassed myself, everyone would have been like, ‘Ewwwwww.’ I didn’t embarrass myself. I didn’t come in last; I didn’t come in first.”
Scott’s story has since spawned a movie deal, and the dual citizen was recently named the captain of Team USA for Australia’s Wayne Gretzky Classic, an annual game featuring pro hockey players from Canada and the United States.
Hopefully he gets there early enough to have shaken off any jet lag.
