All-Star captain an enforcer
John Scott is known for intimidating opponents with his fists and massive size. Now the Arizona Coyotes tough guy can add a new title: NHL All-Star captain. Fans voted for the four captains to the Jan. 31 All-Star game at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena and the final tally had Scott’s name next to Florida’s Jaromir Jagr, Washington’s Alex Ovechkin and Chicago’s Patrick Kane. “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 before the Coyotes faced the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday. “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 other three captains were not surprising. Jagr is one of the game’s elders, Ovechkin one of its best players and Kane is the NHL’s points leader. The 6-foot8, 270-pound Scott is one of the game’s last heavyweight fighters, a player who’s articulate and well thought of off the ice, but one of the most intimidating forces on it. Scott has one assist and 25 penalty minutes in 11 games this season and was waived three times by the Coyotes. The enforcer has five goals, six assists and 542 penalty minutes in 285 career games. The All-Star game was reformatted this year, with one player from each division selected by fan voting to lead a team in the three-on-three game. “Fans — I was afraid that 3on3 all-Star game may kill me, now, I am more afraid, fighting John Scott 6,8 300 during All-Star, kill me for sure,” Jagr tweeted. A fan campaign began when voting started and continued until Scott became an improbable captain. “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. The NHL will select the remaining 40 players for the game and announce them Wednesday.
Auston Matthews had a hat trick to lead the United States to a 7-0 victory over the Czech Republic on Saturday in the quarterfinals of the world junior hockey championship in Helsinki. Matthews is expected to be the No. 1 pick in the 2016 NHL draft. Nick Schmaltz, Christian Dvorak, Scott Eansor and Alex DeBrincat also scored for the Americans. Alex Nedeljkovic made 28 saves for his first shutout of the tournament. The U.S. will face Russia in the semifinals on Monday. Host Finland will face Sweden in the other semifinal.
After one of the best months in team history, the Florida Panthers were apparently convinced that Gerard Gallant is the coach who can finally take them deep into the playoffs. Gallant and the Panthers have finalized a contract extension, the deal being announced Saturday. The extension was revealed one day after the Panthers — who went 11-3-0 in December, the third-best month in franchise history in terms of winning percentage — added three years to general manager Dale Tallon’s contract. Now, both he and Gallant will be in place for Florida through the 2018-2019 season. Gallant entered Saturday with a 59-41-19 record with the Panthers. He inherited a 66-point team and turned it into a 91-point club last season in his inaugural campaign with the Panthers, keeping them in the playoff hunt until the final days of the season. Florida, which has made the playoffs just once in the past 14 seasons, went into Saturday second in the Atlantic Division and fourth in the Eastern Conference.