Amy Pearl are you there? Yeah, I am. Okay. Hi.
Hi. Hi. Are you still allergic to me? Of course you are right?
Yes, totally. That's okay I don't miss it anymore. Oh really? Yes, I do.
Hey, Jad here before we get to the show. I want to reintroduce you to someone Let's see. My name is Amy Pearl You might remember Amy from an episode we did a couple years ago about ticks and meat allergies and we brought her back into the studio because she is now Hosting her own podcast and it's pretty great. It's called 10 things that scare me And the show 10 things that scare me name kind of says it all because a couple times a week they put out a show They come out three times a week.
So holy moly, but they're really short I mean for a podcast unprecedentedly short each episode is only about five minutes like a little micro dose And in each episode you hear one person explaining their 10 greatest fears and explaining why each of those 10 things scare them What was the idea behind it? Well, Jad I feel like radio is not weird anymore for one and I really wanted I'm like Let's make it weird and so a while back she heard this recording. Hi, I'm Ida Nine oh, I'm some kids. We all really decided to bring you our Look those episodes.
Yes, I'm a friend from work. Maybe listen to the recording of their kid Each of us has made a list of things we think are really scary a recording of things that they were afraid of I'm scared of the laundry room because of the pipes the pipes are scary when you look up at them They look like they're gonna suck you into the tube and I listen to it so many times because I mean it takes you back to like Yeah, it was pipe are scary And so she was like it's compelling to hear kids talk about their fears kids. You don't even really know What if we actually heard people that we did know talk about it? I'm afraid of poisoning, but even more than I'm afraid of poisoning I'm afraid of my fear of poisoning.
They've gotten episode with John Green author of the fault in our stars number two divorce attorneys Anthony the mooch scare moochie my divorce attorney was fantastic by the way I mean it's literally come a very close friend number three the hilarious comedian Joe Firestone getting to a point mentally where he was cycling seems cool Nay even sexy and you'll also hear plenty of a not so famous people people who are like awful and Fearful souls. Yeah, just real I Recommend this podcast. It's really fun if you download it. You will not be sorry I even did one you may hear my voice in the flow of things You can subscribe on Apple podcasts or wherever you get yours And if you are a thoughtful anxious fearful person the ten things team wants to hear your fears You can record them and find out a whole lot more at ten things podcast org Radio NY My god, I would so this I had hey, I'm Jada Rod I'm Robert Crowe, which is this radio lab and we have another story for you another adventure courtesy of who else well reporter But the master so the way I first learned about the story is that I saw that there was this article trending in this Online publication called the players trillion which is like a kind of athletes magazine which of course you subscribe to which of course I'm like scrawn.
Yes I'm the like Lisa I'm the only scrawny couch potato basically But anyway the the thing that jumped out to me about this article is that it's a sport story But it's actually so much more like it's a story about voting it's a story about cyberbullying is a story about you know Sticking it to the establishment. It's a it's a sport story But it's like it's one that feels like it could only have happened at this very specific moment that we're living in right now Yeah, I mean I don't know if we can always paint sports as a microcosm of society, but in this case it's undeniable that it was so the whole story starts with this guy Greg Wyshinsky hockey stuff Greg is a hockey journal and senior NHL writer for ESPN known to his legions of fans as Pock daddy that a self-given name no he got it from his editor when he first started blogging about hockey the other option at the time was Zamboni Pony oh which would have been a horrible name and I very much avoided an entire you know 10 year run of people calling me the pony That's true, right? But now I have my notes. I'm ready to roll now.
Okay. Well, let's just jump in that Yeah, so we are live happy this story really begins on the podcast that I did with the gentleman by the name of Jeff Merrick In the wrong industry, but basically couple hockey writers just shooting the breeze on hockey Well, you know what I just see we're in the hockey industry and as you know hockey industries about making money making new fans turning heads Okay, so this is November 2015 just a few months before the NHL's you know big mid-season spectacle There's a sense that I have about this game that's worrisome And so this year yet again the NHL for the hundredth time in the last 15 years was changing the format of the all-star game This year the hundred NHL all-star game features a three-on-three tournament consisting of four different teams one for each division Hockey is typically five on five three on three However, it's supposed to be like, you know way more action a lot more scoring a lot more fun But for Greg and Jeff who are you know the hockey purists They're like yet again the NHL is just changing things up to get more eyeballs on this game that by this point has just become a watered down Half-speed joke of a game. It's not a game. It makes a mockery of it But just got second so the two of them as many diapart hockey traditionalists do go off on the NHL and eventually that leads them to talk About the other what they see is the other really dumb thing about that years all-star game Fan voting has long been a part of the game as a kid There was nothing else better than grabbing a little punch card at a game and knocking out the little circles and trying to grab like 30 of them To make sure that you know Kirk Mueller gets a spot in the all-star game or whatever But over the years the NHL had started reducing the number of players that could get voted in one year They were even accused of turning off the vote when they didn't like where it was headed and anyway this year the NHL had limited The vote so much that the fans could only vote in four players a captain for each division the Pacific the central Atlantic the metropolitan But four players all you could vote in it just seems to run counter to what the all-star game history tradition should be to what we really Want with this all-star game, which is fan engagement at the end I just hope that everyone somehow a collective and maybe we can be the charge you're on And at that point they started thinking what if we use the little voting power that we do have to mess with the all-star game We need something in there who normally would not be in this game like as a joke We should vote somebody in who just does not belong and Greg's like I like that thought okay But who do it fit the bill there and as Greg was thinking about it He thought you know it'll be funny You know it really mess with the NHL is if we vote in a player player who couldn't really keep up couldn't really shoot It couldn't really handle the puck the slow guy with the bad hands couldn't do anything Let's let's really you know drop a stink bomb in the room and then It hit him the perfect guy a Goliath of the League John Scott The John Scott Was it by he met It was a guy that would only play between like five and eight minutes a night Couldn't really shoot couldn't really stay And on top of that when John Scott was on the ice The only thing he was good at was knocking other people's hands You know hockey terms this guy is a predator John Scott was what you would call an old-fashioned Good oh my god That's the one he's a guy from that point on there was no other answer to the question like that was the guy that it would have to be And what started there as a tiny joke between two guys on a podcast would end up twisting the fate and fortune of one of the most feared Load punishing players in the national occupants.
You be quiet. Yeah change some things for his family, too Hello, hey, okay, I'm calling you for myself on has this oh much better. So this is John Yeah, we're good. We're gonna give you the thumbs up all right great.
Okay. My daughter's here, too So if there's like sounds it's just my daughter cruising around no, that's cute. I love it Okay, good Okay, so I think to really understand what it was like for John to be on the other end of this to be like You know with a butt of a joke you need to understand what hockey meant to John like what it meant for him to be playing in the NHL Like everyone has their dreams like when you're a kid expressed that in the States It's football baseball in Canada when you ask a seven eight year old we do those projects in class What do you want to be when you grow up? And I think 90% of the boys like I'm gonna be in the NHL and I always said my parents have all that stuff all over the walls and stuff But yeah, I always dreamed of playing the NHL.
I think everybody that was their big dream So yeah, so John has this classic Canadian hockey kid story But on skates when I was three my dad built the rink in the backyard played all the time every single day morning You tonight and you just go to sleep in your gear and wake up and just jump right on the ice skate until seven or eight at night And you just jump in bed go to sleep you just kept it on to save time So but the thing about John was that even as a kid I was a monster. I came out of the room 24 25 24 and a half inches long And I was 11 pounds 12 pounds. I was huge school pitchers was a joke Everyone thought I was like a teachers assistant when I hit like grade seven eight nine because I was so tall and When you're young and you're that tall you have zero zero coordination And so John was never the top kind of steam never the fastest never the most skilled never, you know the best at anything I just kind of sorry my daughter just started playing the piano beside us Yeah, are you okay with the piano? Okay, yeah, that's cute So you Well, there's something you said that you Here let me let me put her to bed one second.
Sorry. Yeah, no, no take your time. Take your time Yeah, from Mississauga No, so I'm calling you for Boston myself on his boss and I my job is in New York I actually live in LA. Oh wow, you're just like a little bit.
Yeah, I'm well not I mean I feel like compared to you you've been all over the map for real You go that night. All right now. She's done perfect You have you can put her down so he's like the best kid ever. It's great.
I don't know how we luck I was her but she was our number five and we needed that she was anything but perfectly in trouble. All right, we're back All right, let's let's get back it. Okay, we're back. We're back.
We're back. Okay, so to jump back in John plays throughout his school years by the time he's getting close to college a lot of his friends are getting you know Offers scholarships to different, you know big-time schools University of Minnesota Boston college plays like that for John There was just no interest like coaches thought he was too big to play wouldn't be able to keep up out there on the ice But eventually he did get one offer to play for a middle-level University Michigan Tech and I just figured I would in all honesty I would finish college and get a job That would be it I would have got an education for free and you know I'd play hockey with the guys on the weekends But that was now to the end of hockey but then a couple of things happen first at school I kind of always noticed him he met Danielle because he was about two feet taller than anybody else on campus They were both engineering students started dating senior year, you know We kind of hit things off and the rest was history and the other thing that happened was I got this opportunity To go play for the Houston arrows Minnesota's farm team minor league team. It wasn't crazy money It was 30,000 or 35,000 you talk to Dan yellow about it He was like well Let me give this hockey thing like a go like this is the only chance I'm gonna get to be able to say I played pro and the way that I kind of looked at it was oh, okay It's just like a little head start and then once I graduate like we'll both get our jobs like our real jobs and move on with our lives So John moved down to Houston. I didn't have any expectations.
I just worked my tail off I was a bad skater. I worked at skating. I was a bad passer. I would work at passing after practice But he says no matter what he did he would not get any playing time I was always a step or two behind I was I think the ninth defenseman on the roster and you only dressed six for a game So I never played the first I think month of the season But while John was in Houston He noticed that there were these other big guys on the team and they were getting playing time They kind of took me into their wings and they said hey listen If you really want to get noticed down here if you really want to go to the NHL You should learn how to fight it worked perfectly because that's what happened So for those of you who don't follow hockey too much I have guys on my team To the gabber talk to talk wait more gabber Who make ten million nine million eight million dollars and they are paid to score and they are paid to perform and play well But there are also guys out there they are the ugly children to be in a child who their job is to they are instigators Aggravators pester annoy and we call them the rats the pest and you can hear these guys like when they're miked up How are you to hear like 10 guys right now running their mouths?
What are you doing out here? They try to get under the star player's skin I'm like this guy. No, I'm gonna still jab and poke at these star players, but sometimes oh They'll use their stick hack at them or they'll check them into the board But they'll try and really hurt them So in order to deal with pests you got people like John who are called enforcers So basically my job is to make sure those pests don't pester my top guys And so when we would go into a game I would know exactly who to pinpoint because you know You do your scouting and I would go up to those guys and I would say hey listen if you're gonna do that I'm gonna put my fists through your face and more often than not just the fear of the retribution if they did something would Stop them and you can see the frustration in big time skies But if they did do something my job was to beat them up and is a hockey player I was the heck of a fighter when I made the NHL John Scott can really punch people Does John would take care of the pest they wouldn't fight I would usually grab their tough guy to Beat him up If we were playing flat and we didn't have energy I would go out and try to fight to get my guys going or if it was a really bad hit I would just grab that guy and I would be a store's on Absolutely Unloading it's funny throughout my career. I really hated fighting there was days where I went sleeping night Just because I knew I was going to get into a fight But you just do your job and I think I did my job well well enough that John was able to make a career in the NHL It's everything you dream of as a kid It was kind of like a leap of faith and it worked out great So by this point Danielle and John had gotten married, you know, we had bought our first house So now for the first two kids, it's just all beyond anything we are I ever expected Well, tell me tell me all the names of all the teams that you played for oh my gosh.
I'm embarrassed I So in 2008 John started playing in the NHL for the Minnesota wild after that He played for Chicago and New York and Buffalo and San Jose and throughout his whole career as an enforcer There was this shift going on in professional hockey Just an incredible incredible play a lot of the hockey establishment and media Sex in the League were pushing for the game to be more high-scoring To be more about skill and speed and a lot of people started coming out and saying there should not be a place in this league for fighting I was the easy target this guy is a good if you haven't seen the movie you don't have to bother this is a good They went after me and they said listen we don't need guys like this in a league There's no room for it in the game. There's no room for guys in the game They're sole purposes to punch people I believe the players that play in this league should be able to skate and pass not simply ignite a fight They were gonna eliminate players like this which is one of the reasons why oh my god For guys like Greg Wachinsky and Jeff Merrick voting John Scott into the all star game was not just a hilarious joke about a big I couldn't skate but it was also a big fat middle finger to the hockey establishment I'm so I'll just do the whole the big point do it I was we were on the road and we were on the bus heading to a game or pre-game skate It was December 2015 John was playing for the Arizona Coyotes and a guy my team Anders Lindbeck our goalie He was sitting beside me and he's like hey, you're you know, you're in he was like 56th place or something You know of the fan voting and I was like oh, you know, that's great people think it's a joke They're gonna vote for me a little bit and it was it was nothing serious So that's how I first heard of it on the bus. So we go to the we go to the rink we do our skate literally after the skate He checks his phone again. He's like holy cow man.
You're like top 25 It happened that fast and then the next day I was top five and then like the day after that I was number one There's a surprise leader and fan voting for the upcoming NHL All-Star game And his name is yeah, John Scott seriously. It was like a mean John Scott the enforcer for the year make a story Arizona's John Scott is leading the NHL was unbelievable how quickly it grew John Scott number one the number one vote Get her among all players in the NHL which meant that John would be a all-star game captain team captain at the all-star game Let that sink in for a second and for the fans who were voting for John It was definitely a bit alike. Oh you shrunk the number of players we can vote in oh, yeah Oh, really we're gonna make our votes count that here's Johnny But I think for a majority of voters voting for John. Let's be honest It was just really simple the reason John Scott's leading the voting is because it's funny John Scott is not an all-star his one goal over eight games He barely plays like in this three-on-three format where they were supposed to be a bunch of speed and skill wouldn't it be funny to see this big Heres on the coyote's coon ooger fighter with no skills objectively bad at hockey I don't know what he's doing in the league make a fool of himself.
Oh, I hated it This isn't funny anymore I get it like I'm this terrible player who you guys think would be fun to watch me you know fail in this game But I just figured it would end on its own Honestly, I thought it would last a few days and people would get you know They're enough of it and it would go away, but it just didn't and as for the NHL They were they were pissed. I mean to put it frankly I definitely got the sense from some of the people that I speak to on a regular basis at the NHL that they were really Angry that this was happening and why like can you get any more specific about like why this would have been an embarrassment to them? Like what is it exactly that they were so sensitive about they were sensitive about the fact that the all-star game is something that a lot of Old-time hockey people and there's a lot of old-time hockey people that run the National Hockey League see as something prestigious one of the ultimate honors Replayer and so this was not something they wanted to happen and it was happening and they didn't really know what to do about it Because they didn't have any failsafe in place to prevent it from happening after one day of John sitting atop the all-star vote We're just like laying about the kids are sleeping John gets a text message He gets about a bed goes over to his phone starts reading it and he's just standing there for like a while selfishly I'm just want to go to bed But then you know I can sell something that's just got him stewing over there and it was his PR guy from the coyotes They thought it'd be a good idea to release a statement and they wrote up this statement for me and it basically said thank you for the support I don't want your votes, please vote for other guys on my team Basically his own team is saying step away from the all-star game I saw him like respond yada at statements fine and then delete it and then just sit there and look at it And I just remember asking like do you do would you want to go and he's just like well? Yeah, I think because as a kid I watched all the all-star games It was so fun to watch and I would all dream to be in it So yeah, I'm like well They want you to release the statement release the statement but make sure that it's true and so John ends up writing statement that reads Quote, it's nice to be thought of by all of the fans and for that I am truly flattered and grateful and while I would love to experience an all-star game I think a few of my teammates are a bit more deserving of a vote and so it's sort of like I would go if I get voted But there's other people who deserve it more.
I said yeah sure send it out I wasn't totally on board with it, but I just wanted to appease the higher-ups to hopefully help them But even after that it was still John's got number one vote getter. Oh by far. Yeah, it's funny They stopped showing how many votes the players were getting they took that option off the website because I think I was ahead by so many It's like you broke the website. Yeah, so they took that away and then the NHL they really tried to strong our me Oh, yeah, what happened there?
I'm so I was in my bedroom in Arizona and they called and it was one of the higher-ups in NHL And he just you know wanted to know how I was feeling it was getting really close to the end of the voting I just said yeah, you know, I want to go to the game I think it'll be fun I think it'll be good for everybody involved and he's like really sure like you think you'll be able to keep up You think you're good enough like you're not exactly a skilled guy John and they started that way and I just kind of brushed it off You know, I was like yeah, I can skate pretty well. I'm a good decent hockey player and he goes well, you know What do you think we talked to your dad? What do you think first? He was your dad alive?
I was like yeah, it's a live like what do you think he's gonna think about this situation? You know, you think you're you know gonna make him proud and I was like what's like I don't think that doesn't even do with this and I kind of brushed that off and at this time I'm getting a little angry because I'm just like man like let me flip and play and then he's like well What do you think your kids are gonna think when they look back on this? Do you think they're gonna be proud of their dad who went into the all-star game this way and as soon as he brought my kids into the equation I just like lost it and I kind of snap back at him I'm like you're being a real bleep bleep bleep bleep bleep bleep and we're back and forth and he started cussing at me And we and then like I finally like snap back into my colleague. I'm like yelling at one of the head guys And I should like dial it back and I apologize like sorry like, you know, you push the wrong button like let's talk tomorrow I'll let you know if I'm gonna go or not.
I left it like that So John slept on it woke up the next day called the dude the next morning and I said I'm going after the break We'll see you again Maybe we will. Yeah, maybe not. Maybe not. Yeah, hmm Hi, this is Sarah calling from scars own New York radio lab is supported in part by the Alfred Peace loom foundation enhancing public understanding of science Technology in the modern world more information about Sloan at www.sloom.org Pop pop pop that is the sound of popcorn popping to announce the big news that radio lab is headed to the try back a festival podcast stage for a Special live show in New York City We will be headlining the podcast program with this one night only live show at the festival's 25th anniversary Come on out on June 9th at 6 p.m.
For a show that will literally give you chills Mm-hmm tickets are available now at try back a film calm. Slash audio that's try back a film calm slash audio Three two one, Jen Robert radio lab back to hockey and reporter left of nasa Okay So about two weeks before the all-star game John is just getting ready for practice and the GM of the team comes up to him Been talking to me all the time throughout this all-star stuff And I thought it was just gonna be another conversation about that and he pulls me into the stickroom and he's like yeah I just traded you to Montreal and I was like are you effing kidding me what and he's like yeah It was a hockey move we you know we needed a little defensive help and we traded you to Montreal for this guy And I said this is an effing joke are you kidding me? And he said sorry, you know the deal's been done I was like okay, whatever super shady to be traded right after I am finally in the all-star game It's like you know if it smells like a you know walks like a duck talks like a duck It's fishy We called John's former team and the NHL about this neither wanted to talk nonetheless What happened next is that a short while later John has in the locker room gathering my things trying to say goodbye to the guys And he pulls me aside again and the GM tells him actually Montreal the team we just traded you to they're now gonna demo you They're sending you to St. John's new Finland their farm team.
You're in the minor leagues now go see the trainer get your stuff Ready you're leaving today According to the terms of the trade he had to be on the plane that same day and that's what I was just like I was done I was like okay done So yeah, and I just checked out I went like found somewhere in the rink I called my wife who by the way was nine months pregnant with twins I get the phone call from John in those situations He's kind of a man of like few words tells her we're in the minors now And I'm like alright we'll be fine plan see where's the minor team like how do I get there? You know and he's like yeah, it's literally on the other side of the world It is North America's Eastern most city like you could not go further from where I'm at right now and still be on this content And I said sorry I gotta go can you please handle all of this take my two kids take the two kids in your belly take all my stuff pack it up I got to leave it's so bizarre to have to say that to her and like there's nothing I could have done You just say I'm sorry I have to go and I was just thinking to myself Okay, you know like just trying to hold on to hope like we can make this work But see where it's at and I'm like looking at flights and like I pull up kayak And I'm seeing like the flights and it's like 16 hours of travel 14 hours of travel 18 hours of travel And like the prices for like a ticket is like $1600 like it's that in It really all hit me at that moment and I just like stop I Composed myself got my gear told the GM to go you know wherever and I jumped in the car packed up my shit And I'm going to St. John's you want to talk about John Scott so we need to have the debate no I guess the floor is yours quiet Canadian legend Don Sherry on a TV show hockey night in Canada Anyhow you jerks that it put him up for to be in the all-star game what you've done You've you've taken this kid who was doing pretty good late six minutes They 12 minutes didn't matter to Arizona NHL contract what you did was you took and put him in the minors now That's a funny I bet you're very proud of yourself because the NHL this year is going to be terrific And you're going you tried to ruin it all and you're ruining this kid is in the minors never to come back I bet you should be ashamed yourself. You should be ashamed yourself.
That's it I saw this news hit and my first reaction was you have got to be kidding me again Greg Wachinsky who started the John Scott for all Star campaign it was weird. Oh, man. They just make this problem go away But was there part of you was like oh my god like I I started this is on me No, because at that point You know there had been criticism of us for having this campaign and obviously when John Scott came out I was like you guys ruin my career this sucks and sort of poo-poo-doo off the bat made you feel like maybe you've done something Kind of bad to a dude But the campaign had kind of taken on a life of its own and at that point John Scott said he wanted to be an all-star wanted to represent a certain type of player My role is like almost extinct I'm like the last of my kind out here and like it would be cool to go out with a bank all this friends were saying you should do it He wanted to do it because people are telling him right no I don't mean it necessarily that it you know that it's your fault or anything But in a way that like you just and not that you could have foreseen it But you started the train was a part of you that was like oh my god Like if I hadn't said that one thing on my podcast like this guy wouldn't have had a brood his whole life No, I mean again Like I feel like it was the National Hockey League at this point that was standing in his way now Whatever you think about the initial prank or John being demoted. This is the moment Greg says when the crowd mood Totally shifted complete outrage.
This is trash like complete outrage. This is garbage I'm not gonna go about a rant about democracy. It became protests online This is a lousy thing to do Sweeping through the hockey world like look the fans voted this guy in the NHL is doing all it can to keep this guy out And that's not right you want to change this contact your favorite sports writer in your city since the NHL is so damn image conscious Why don't you put pressure on your favorite reporter to stick up for John Scott? I can only imagine how John feels right now Well pissed off Sorry for yourself, then you feel you get sad do I even want to play hockey?
What do I want to do like I do I just quit talking go work? Like you think about all these things but now that you're in the minor leagues Are you allowed to play for the all-star game? That's the thing no one knew he says right after he was demoted to the minor leagues People started to you know read through the bylaws read through the books trying to figure out like can a minor league player play in the Professional NHL all-star game and it turns out there was no rule that even remotely addressed the situation like it was totally unprecedented And so the pressure stayed on the NHL knew that if John Scott wasn't in the all-star game There's probably visions from the NHL of protest signs along the glass a fans out the outside the arena holding a rally because John Scott was snubbed and according to Greg Hockey fans are notorious for throwing jerseys onto the ice and protest causing scenes and Eventually the National Hockey League had to acquiesce they put out a statement they made a statement saying hey if John wants to go You can go but John says at this point I told everybody I'm not going like the NHL PA I told all my friends the teammates look I'm done like this is a bogus I don't want to do this he says between the fans making fun of him and the league demoting him the whole thing was just too humiliating But I was just like John you may regret this I know you want to like run away and hide right now and like going in front of all these people's every last thing you want to do But you might regret it she's like let's go it would be fun for the family the kids will love it I would love to see you go and prove these people wrong my wife was building me back up and slowly but surely I was like okay You know what fuck this let's do it January 31st 2016 Nashville it was a complete circus it was unbelievable I was obviously the big story so the moment I land there's reporters everywhere ask me questions John would be representing the Division in the alter game and we had to play it was a central who everyone said they were stacked because they had all the stunt players on Our team players like Matt do Shane James Neil all these much younger much higher paid players and then you had John I knew everybody was staring at me and I'm weird about my hair because I'm going bald and I'm skating around like I wish I Would have grabbed my hats. I was like dang it.
Everything is buzzing Danielle stands with their two little kids everybody's looking for him to fail Yeah, this this dummy is gonna make it ask themselves and before the game the coach comes up to him Coach asked me if I wanted to start and I just to know please let me stay on the bench and the coach is like all right But you're going in early so John's teammates skate out to center ice. He's sitting on the bench butterflies in his summit Rekorap the puck right away 26 seconds into the game John's team goes down one nothing It was like a terrific goal like it was a pass to a one-timer shot like it was a goal that all stars make John's coach look at him. It's a Scott. You're in Remember this is three on three.
There is a ton of open eyes There's nowhere to go like there's nowhere to hide and John says that skating out to sunrise He just kept thinking don't mess up don't mess up. Don't make it for yourself And that's all I was thinking about laughs got the puck holds it about sunrise. I don't belong here I think you're a joke. I'll screw it up drops it.
What's the puck drop? You just kind of you know Everything else goes away. You just start playing hockey Just was like going back to when I was younger. I wasn't the best I wasn't the fastest, but you you know you just start playing And that's what I did this time John seems to possession of the puck Burnsy had the puck we're going up the ice John and his teammates charge across center ice they move into their opponent zone when Brent Burns passes the puck to John John manages to control it He's kind of up against the board So he's using his body to protect the puck trying to figure out what to do next When he makes this nice little backhand back Burnsy had the puck on the right wing and all of a sudden I noticed between two of the defenders There's this nice little lane right to the net I went to the net Burn spotted John you put the puck rate on my stick John's just like a few feet from goal and the goal He's actually out of position.
I had a wide open net and I shot it And I miss the net Like a like a wide open net, but the goalie was luckily sliding back into position And so the puck hit the goalie bounce off the goalie and It was awesome like I was so jacked up by goosebumps like after the goal I was so neat It was cool. Everybody was nuts. That was a neat thing the crowd I didn't know how they were going to react usually they boo me because everybody booed me and they they were all for it The weird thing about the masses too. It's like how quickly everybody can go from hating you to loving you It was such a sense of relief for me a huge monkey was lifted off my back because I was like, okay I did something for the team.
I didn't mess up. He's gonna relax and have fun just like Be himself in play which he did He laid out this guy Patrick Kane And then the two of them drop their gloves pretend to have a fight You got a couple nice passes I had a really close shot on goal. He was just kind of doing everything and every time John Scott was on camera or touched the puck The crowd would come to life Grigoshinsky was actually there reporting at the game and he was down in the tunnels interviewing for all-stars And what happens when you're down in the bowels of the arena is that the all-star game is on TVs But there's a delay between what the broadcast has and what's happening on the ice So typically you'll hear something happen in the game before you actually watch it on TV and I remember hearing this Gigantic roar from the crowd and then everybody kind of looked over at the TV and watched the all-star game Okay, so what happened what elicited that roar was that it was getting to the end of the game tight game The on team was up by one. We were in our zone playing defense and all of a sudden Their team shot it We had a save and burns you got the puck behind the net and I just blew the zone I stayed to the zone as fast as I could because I knew he was gonna get it He saw me up in the middle and he Fired a nice pass and I corralled it and took off down the center of the ice They had someone hounding me, but John so big he was able to keep this defender off of them So it was just John the goalie and the net he gathered the puck.
I ripped the shot top corner on the goalie It went in It was amazing. No goalie deflection. No lucky bounce just a solid skill shot There was just sort of this moment of just laughter laughter from the players being waited to be interviewed laughter from the media downstairs Just unbridled joy and watch it all happen I was just like is this even happening like it started to just be like good I think I could physically see this smile on his face from up in the stands the guys on the ice jumped on me They're like holy cow this is unbelievable The final chapter of the John Scott story at least as it pertains to the all-star game is This really beautiful thing and so so there's a scene in Star Trek 2 the wrath of Khan Where it looks like the Enterprise is gonna get away having defeated Khan, but Khan no It's still alive And he's gonna try to trigger the doomsday device on his ship to kill everybody And so as the as the Enterprise is flying away you see a bloody Khan say from hell's hot Hell's hard I stab at the for a sake and I thought of that scene when the voting for most valuable player at the all-star game To explain at the end of the game There's one final bit of fan voting fans We're gonna choose the MVP of the NHL all-star game most valuable play and the fans in the arena and watching on TV They would text the name of the person they want to a number or they would go on Twitter and use a special hashtag Text the person's name any case Right as the voting is about to begin the NHL puts up a bunch of names of players on the jumbo drum says here are your choice And John Scott's name was not listed among the three MVP candidates on the jumbo The fans saw that it wasn't on there they went now as they started the boo loudly Visibly you could you know feel it around the ring? I thought it was the last gasp of all the people at the NHL that tried to keep John Scott out of the all-star game It was their last chance to get him like Khan trying to get captain Kirk.
That's what he was trying to say with the analogy Anyway, what ended up happening is that during the voting thousands of people wrote in their own choice and when it was announced It's funny I didn't hear it because on ice level you don't hear what the speakers are playing because they point the speakers to the fans I didn't had it here and so like somebody's like hey like go and like get your trophy I was like oh weird John skates out to the center of the ice laughing looking a little scared. Holy shit I was just like the MVP the all-star job Scott is with the air. Thanks a lot. There's been all kinds of ovation for you What was the teary-eyed Disney family sports film moment?
Your team won a million dollars. How you find it? I'm spreading it around. It's gonna go out 100 parts of me and they're gonna Take the rest.
Hey, he was hoisted on to the shoulders of his teammates and paraded around like he was a Rudy greatest sports movie ever I wanted to go down by the ice so that the kids could see John and people are trying to help me down the stairs and like Party the seas like you get down there my kids were down at the bench with my wife and it was so weird Like it was literally like Disney wrote a script. It's like okay now he kisses his wife He kissed me and our eyes locked and it was just we both were kind of like shaking your head It's like we're both a little bit speechless now. We grabbed his kids He scooped them up and the cliche fashion I grabbed my kids and scaded them around the ice He was like daddy stink he smelled bad and like every time like I would just look at him And I'm like can you even believe this is happening and it was no like I just can't and as they came off the ice There were crowds of people waiting to ask some questions pictures with them But we had a flight the next morning at like 5 a.m He had to get back to the minor leagues and before that they still had to have these babies So they rush on to give birth to the twins four days after babies were born I went back to St. John's oh my god Yeah, yeah I feel like that was really the beginning of the rest of our lives John finished out that season played one last NHL game and then retired he and Danielle live with their five girls in Traverse City, Michigan But the legacy of his all-star appearance lives on in two ways first the day after the game It was announced that John Scott's helmet the helmet he wore during the game would be flown to Toronto Where will be put on display at the hockey hall of fame?
But the other thing that happened was just in time for the next year's all-star game the NHL created a new rule known as the John Scott rule which states that any player who is voted to be a captain in the all-star game then gets demoted to the minor leagues Will be disqualified will not be allowed to play effectively ensuring that never again will the fans have quite the power to overthrow the system and vote in John Scott Reporter Lassif Nasser this episode was produced by Mr. Matt Kielke and fact checked by Diane Kelly Also, if you want to hear more from John Scott and of course he has a podcast It's called dropping the gloves available wherever you get podcasts or lose your gloves And in this episode there we have a lot of original music from John Dryden the OC's we eat her and bongzilla and last special thanks to Morgan Springer Faisal Camisa and then hand-conson and That's it. That's it. That's what we got to do today.
Yeah, let's get out of here. Okay. I'm Chad. I'm Robert Oh, which she thinks are listening to play the message press to start of message.
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