Thoughts on John Scott, Oilers and more

We are in the midst of another online campaign to place another non All-star NHL player into the All-star game. Arizona tough guy John Scott is currently first in NHL voting.

In 2006/2007 “Vote for Rory” almost saw Vancouver Canucks D-man Rory Fitzpatrick play in the game. He was near the top among in votes, but a week before the game the NHL tossed out a large number of his ballots due to tainted results and
blamed the use of automated voting programs.

If the NHL allows fans to vote for the starters you will always have ballot stuffing. When Montreal hosted in 2009 they had four players in the starting lineup, including Mike Komisarek, and when Ottawa had the 2012 game they also had four starters.

My issue with Scott’s position is that many of the voters seem extremely disingenuous.

Many of the people RT to vote for Scott on twitter are the same people who have written many articles calling him a “Face Puncher” and a disgrace to the game. Many who despise fighting are suddenly jumping on the “Vote for John Scott” train.

It isn’t hard to see who they are, and personally I find it disappointing how they’d want to embarrass another human just because they believe it is “fun”.

I’ve spoke to John many times over his career and he’s a good person. He, like all of us, knows why he is in the NHL. He plays a role many despise and the majority of us couldn’t do even if we wanted to.

In an interview with Sarah McLellan from the Arizona Republic Scott talked about the voting.

“I don’t want to have my name in the headlines for this reason,” Scott
said. “Like, it’s a fun little thing and hopefully it’ll die down over
time. It’s not something — I definitely don’t want to be voted into the
All-Star Game. It would be cool, but I definitely don’t deserve it to
this point.”

Players know their strengths and weaknesses. How uncomfortable would it be for him to have to walk in the dressing room and then answer questions all weekend? It would not be as fun as many believe.

The NHL needs to wake up and change their voting policy, but fans should stop and think if voting for Scott is truly a good idea.

Is it really worth it to embarrass a guy who does a job none of us would or could do? 

We shouldn’t make him the punchline.

The Oilers played well in a 3-2 SO win over Boston last night. Anders Nilsson continues to impress and after making 38 saves he increased his sv% to .915, and lowered his GAA to 2.63. His last six games he has stopped 171 of 182 shots (.939sv%) and the Oilers are 6-7-1 when he starts.

He looks like he is becoming the starter, but head coach Todd McLellan isn’t ready to give him that title just yet.

“I would say he is awfully very close,” said McLellan. ” He is doing a tremendous job of taking the ball. I think we are showing that the way we are using him, but we are not prepared to anoint one or the other (as starter) because both are important. Cam Talbot will play some real important game for us this year.”

McLellan had a great line when I asked him about Nurse’s play.

“You can see him improving and he’s more relaxed in the game. I can see Darnell standing up before his name is called, and that is a sign of a guy who is confident and ready to go. He wants to be on the ice, where some guys who aren’t very sure of themselves, they wait for their name to be called. He’s already half way up and his ass isn’t on the bench anymore. He’s playing like that, good for him.”

You rarely notice Nurse in the defensive zone, and that is a good thing. When you focus on him you see how quickly he is adapting to the speed and strength of the NHL. He has calmed his game down, but as his confidence grows I suspect we will see him become more involved offensively. I haven’t seen any weaknesses in his game the past month.

The veteran and a very honest assessment about his team after last night’s win.

“When we play to our system, when we have good details, we tend to play good hockey games. We don’t win them all the time, but when we play our system and play with detail we play well.

When we get away from it we are a sloppy team. A lot of swinging, not a lot of stopping and we are a poor checking team defensively. We have to find the consistency to play our game more often, and once we can do that we will win more games. It is about playing the right way the majority of the time. We’ve shown we can do it, but we’ve struggled playing our system consistently.”

The onus is on the players to find consistency. They need to try and eliminate efforts that they had in Toronto and Carolina. Good teams have off nights, but they have more “on” nights than off. Once the Oilers figure out how to flip that switch permanently, they will be able to beat teams like the Bruins on a more regular basis.

We raised an amazing $6,400 yesterday. Thank you Craig for the generous bid and to Vons and the Eskimos for the package.

You can bid by calling 780.444.1260 or text 101260 between 2-6 p.m. today.

Thanks in advance. All proceeds go towards Christmas Bureau.

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