One thing that bugs me through this whole John Scott, All-Star saga is that once Scott got elected to the game, fans were making a big deal out of how the league was being disrespectful to Scott in trying to get him to step down. The whole point of the make-Scott-an-All-Star exercise was to make the league look dumb, and while the NHL has conclusively proven through this that there is no bad situation that they can endeavor to make worse, treating Scott with respect was never in the cards.
The point of the exercise was to send a face-puncher to skate with the league's best and make him look silly, thereby making the league look silly. But the butt of the joke was always supposed to be Scott, and crying now that Scott was somehow disrespected seems somehow like crocodile tears.
John Scott has come out of this looking far better than he had any right to expect, and that's a marvel of timing (and I presume of media message). The league ends up being the bad guy, and I presume that
the league circumstance will conspire to ensure that the All-Star game is the last NHL game that Scott plays.
But maybe the most important thing is -- people are actually talking about the All-Star game.
For once.
