The John Scott movement has succeeded.
In its revamped All-Star Game experience, the NHL announced that fans have chosen Scott, Patrick Kane, Jaromir Jagr and Alex Ovechkin as captains for the Jan. 31 event in Nashville, Tennessee.
From Dec. 1 to Jan. 1, the league held a fan vote to select one player from each division to captain the four teams in the new three-on-three tournament format. Scott's situation is unique in that the enforcer has been waived by theArizona Coyotesthree times this season, he has spent time in the AHL, and he has has appeared in only 11 games forthe Coyotes. Still, fans embraced his candidacy to send him to his first All-Star Game by rallying around the hashtag #VoteJohnScott.
It worked.
"At first, it was one of those things that I thought was a joke, but now it happened, so I've kind of got to go with it, have some fun with it and try to do the best I can," Scott said before the Coyotes' 4-3 shootout loss to theEdmonton Oilerson Saturday.
Kane of the Chicago Blackhawks won the Central vote, Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals captured the Metropolitan, Jagr of the Florida Panthers took the Atlantic, and Scott of the Coyotes led the Pacific vote.
Jagr joked about Scott's selection:
Scott, however, is taking the selection seriously.
"It's one of those things where I don't want to be a joke, I don't want to be an embarrassment, I don't want to kind of embarrass the game in that way," Scott said. "But I talked to some people, I talked to a lot of former players, and everyone said have fun with it, just go with it and it'll be a good experience."
The remaining 40 players for the four teams will be decided by the NHL's hockey operations department and will be announced Jan. 6.
Kane leads the league with 56 points. Jagr is a nine-time All-Star but hasn't been in the game since 2004. Ovechkin became the all-time leading scorer from Russia this season and has the Capitals near the top of the league standings.
Scott has one assist this season. For his career, he has five goals, six assists and 542 penalty minutes.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.