For All-Star joke to All-Star MVP

The Pacific Division underdogs beat the Atlantic Division on Sunday night to win the All-Star tournament. The Pacific Division beat the Atlantic Division… I happened to read John Scott: A Guy Like Me, and my view changed on this giant of a man. The man loves the game of hockey, plain and simple. Prior to his induction into the All-Star game, Scott had scored just 5 goals in his National Hockey League entire career.

“You can’t really write this stuff”, he told Cohn.

The hype grew when Scott stole the show Sunday in Nashville, earning all-star MVP honours.

Scott’s two daughters and his wife, pregnant with twins, were on hand to witness the dream weekend. “Yeah, nerve-wracking, especially [because] Burnzie is such a spaz”. It just gives me goose bumps thinking about all the fans have done for me. The Central team came back with goals by Dustin Byfuglien and Tyler Seguin, but Taylor Hall and Drew Doughty would put the nail in the coffin even though Roman Josi netted one last goal for the Central team.

Starting with the NHL Skills Competition on Saturday, the cheers Scott received from fans were as loud as the ones for the hometown Predators, which spoke volumes of the NHL fans’ decision to vote Scott into the game. This time, these All-Stars combined for 116 shots and 23 goals. He was named the Most Valuable Player, got hoisted on the shoulders of his teammates, was handed the keys to a van and, oh yeah, picked up $90,000 for a couple hours’ work. The game would be played as a 3-on-3 tournament between divisional teams, likely due to the intense popularity of the 3-on-3 format of overtime play in regular games.

Although my knowledge of curling and Gaelic football is not quite up to snuff, I’m pretty sure ice hockey is the civilized world’s only sport where you will find an athlete identified as a “journeyman enforcer”.

Florida goalie Roberto Luongo and Los Angeles goalie Jonathan Quick combined for 22 saves, 12 by Luongo, in a breathtaking exhibition of save-making over the first 10 minutes. The Pacific won with a final score of 9-6, and they were heading into the final 20 minute game.

What was not foreseeable was the impact that John Scott would have. The players stuck up for their fellow hockey player, who seemed to be ousted by the Arizona Coyotes and the NHL in general when they asked him to respectfully decline an invitation to the All-Star Game. One of the game’s most heartwarming moments came when Pacific coach Darryl Sutter’s son, Christopher, who has Down Syndrome, was one of the first to celebrate with the MVP.

While Patrice Bergeron wasn’t present at Monday’s Bruins practice to chat about his NHL All-Star weekend experience, it was still one of the topics of the day after the B’s players skated following five days off for All-Star break.

She said this has been overwhelming. “We’d like to have the babies at home”. Burns also assisted on Corey Perry’s winning goal in the final.

Each time he stepped onto the ice, they roared “M-V-P!”

He also got to be his true self on the ice Sunday.

NY Rangers at New Jersey, 6 p.m. Both semifinal favorites – Central and Metropolitan – lost and an expected flurry of goals in the championship period never materialized.