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NHL All-Star Game fans are in search of another John Scott
John Scott looks on during the 2016 NHL All-Star Final Game between the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference at on January 31, 2016. Scott was voted in via the fans prompting a rule change against fan "favorites" in 2017. Frederick Breedon/Getty Images

NHL All-Star Game fans are in search of another John Scott

The 2017 NHL All-Star Game is on the horizon, although there has been a lot of looking backwards to last year’s festivities. You can thank the hype around reigning All-Star MVP John Scott for that.

That is, in part, because the 34-year-old big man officially announced his retirement from the league this past Wednesday. But Scott is also coming up in conversation surrounding the up-coming All-Star fete because, well, he inspired a rule change for All-Star Game fan voting.

The fan voting madness opened up on December 1, and now comes with some newly-added guidelines. Said guidelines include that players who are injured, waived or sent down to the minors within a certain period of time are not eligible to participate in the game.

Yet despite this effort by the NHL, and the fact that the current roster of top vote-getters is comprised of all the usual suspects, there appears to be plenty of effort to create another John Scott Experience at this year’s All-Star Game in LA.

Heck, TSN’s Frank Seravalli even wrote a piece when voting opened up about under-the-radar players who could be the next John Scott.

How exactly did this happen? What makes last year’s ASG so memorable that fans could be voting in an effort to recreate it?

Scott’s tale is also an underdog story, and let’s face it, there are those fans in every professional sport’s fan base that perpetually route for the “little guy.” (I know I know, Scott isn’t “little” by any means. You get the idea.) Scott’s 2015-16 campaign will forever be cemented in hockey history – partial thanks to a book and future film – after he went from being at the bad end of a joke to captaining the Pacific Division All-Star team, snagging MVP honors, and becoming a main reason so many viewers tuned in last January. A big part of that story are the actions by the NHL, which made it look as though the league was going out of its way to prevent Scott from participating. (A piece by Scott for The Players' Tribune helped shed a lot of light on how the league chose to handle the underdog forward getting appointed captain of the Pacific Division team.) It is possible that fans will rally again to put a less flashy player in the ASG to what the league will have to say about it. Heck, Scott’s own proclamation that Steve Ott should go is a test for the league in itself.

The “feel-good” aspect of Scott’s ordeal last season definitely struck a chord with fans. While the “campaign” to vote Scott onto the team started off mean-spirited, fans ended up rooting for him because of how the league tried to keep him from participating – and that excellent read in The Players' Tribune that hit fans right in the feels. It is a motivation behind a piece encouraging Senators’ fans to vote netminder Craig Anderson, who is currently on leave while his wife goes through cancer treatment. Or The Comeback, among other outlets, suggesting an ASG nod for Bryan Bickell, who was recently diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. While either player might decline a roster spot to the ASG, the fact that either would be nominated would certainly give fans a warm and fuzzy feeling.

But what makes the search for the next underdog-turned-ASG-MVP phenomenon even more interesting is how some teams promote their superstars. The first slide on nearly every team’s home page asks fans to cast their votes for the All-Star game, although certain players are typically named. The Nashville Predators page? First thing you see is a call for fans to vote for P.K. Subban and Pekka Rinne. For the Penguins? Their homepage asks you to vote for fans to send Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel and Kris Letang.

But what if, say, Pens fans decide to stuff the ballots with votes for Matt Murray? Or if Kings’ fans want more representation in an event that they are hosting to decide to put their votes towards Peter Budaj? Or if fans across the board are so taken with the idea of new faces in the game that they go all-in on the youth vote so that Auston Matthews makes the cut? (Connor McDavid and Patrik Laine are among those who have the most votes in their respective divisions already.) These are all possible outcomes of the vote, which are made even more likely by the apparent desire among fans to recreate the John Scott manifesto in some form.

The votes for the All-Star rosters are still being tallied, and it’s still anyone’s guess as to what surprises may pop up on the upcoming roster. One thing has been made pretty clear already though: Despite the efforts of the league to tailor the votes, fans of the ASG are looking to send another John Scott to the event.

Can you name the NHL players with the most All-Star Game appearances?
SCORE:
0/23
TIME:
7:00
1948-80 (23)
Gordie Howe
1979-01 (19)
Ray Bourque
1978-99 (18)
Wayne Gretzky
1957-79 (15)
Frank Mahovlich
1980-01 (15)
Paul Coffey
1978-04 (15)
Mark Messier
1982-04 (13)
Scott Stevens
1950-73 (13)
Alex Delvecchio
1951-71 (13)
Glenn Hall
1982-03 (13)
Al MacInnis
1988-pr (12)
Jaromir Jagr
1988-09 (12)
Joe Sakic
1955-77 (11)
Norm Ullman
1949-70 (11)
Terry Sawchuk
1984-03 (11)
Patrick Roy
1987-12 (11)
Nicklas Lidstrom
1989-14 (11)
Teemu Selanne
1987-06 (10)
Brian Leetch
1984-06 (10)
Mario Lemieux
1977-98 (10)
Jari Kurri
1983-06 (10)
Steve Yzerman
1991-15 (9)
Martin Brodeur
1989-09 (9)
Mats Sundin

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