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Trending the net: John Scott regains ASG captaincy, Jonathan Drouin saga takes new turn

Plus the Flyers-Penguins rivalry may have disappointed on the ice, but the heat was brought on social media.

By Mary Clarke
Christian Petersen/Getty Images

The NHL is too vast of a league to keep up with everything all at once. Hockey's landscape changes from week to week, and while it's impossible to watch every game unfold in its entirety over the course of a week, you can certainly read the most important narratives all in one place.

These are not your typical power rankings, but more of a trend of who's rising and who's falling, from players and teams to storylines and statistics. To get you ready for the week ahead, we'll catch you up on the week prior.

Trending Up

The Internet won, and John Scott is an NHL All-Star captain

When we last left the John Scott saga, the former Arizona Coyote bruiser was being shipped off to Newfoundland to be buried in the AHL with no All-Star Game hopes in sight. And boy, how the winds have changed in just a short period of time.

What started as a story of embarrassing missteps and disappointing actions was quickly rectified four days after the news of the trade dropped late on a Friday afternoon. After the outcries of displeasure and a thousand and one conspiracy theories on why Scott was getting left out of the game, the NHL listened to its fans and announced Scott's captaincy for the Pacific Division still stands.

Scott will lead the Pacific Division like it was intended by the fans and the NHL avoids a massive blunder that would have tarnished the league's reputation in many eyes. The All-Star Game will be a victory lap well deserved for Scott -- and hockey fans -- in what looks to be his last game in the NHL.

Penguins best Flyers, but the off ice rivalry had more heat than the game

For the first time since October 2013, the Penguins bested the Flyers in an actual hockey match. The 4-3 contest was clearly Pittsburgh's to lose, as the visiting Flyers couldn't match the Penguins speed or toughness all night last Thursday. Despite the win, the game was wholly unsatisfying, unless you're a Penguins fan finally earning your comeuppance on your rival for the first time in over two years.

The game held none of the contempt and disdain that makes the Flyers and Penguins so enjoyable to watch when they play each other. Hatred is often bubbling on the surface right from puck drop, but there was none of that this go around. Maybe it was missing Sean Couturier from the Flyers lineup -- who often acts as a pest for the Penguins biggest stars with his strong defensive play -- or the fact that this was the team's first meeting this year almost 50 games into the season. Or, the cruel reality that both teams are just not as good as they once were. It's hard to be excited over a rivalry if both teams run as hot and cold as day and night.

Still, the fanbases gave the most heated jabs leading up to the match. Traffic cones were involved:

Then our own Broad Street Hockey continued the trolling with a look back at the Flyers previous eight wins against the Penguins complete with GIFs and fun analysis. What really did in Penguins fans was this post detailing how Pittsburgh fans could not sell out their game just a day before the match.

There were attempts at rebuttals from Penguins blogs, but ultimately the Flyers and their fans seemed to win the troll contest, though the Penguins did get the last laugh with the win.

Snowmageddon shut down the NHL, but not Alex Ovechkin

Three games were ultimately postponed due to the snow storm that pounded the East Coast -- myself included in that -- over the weekend. Friday, the Ducks and Capitals were the first to go, despite the game being moved to a 5 p.m. start time to accommodate the snow's arrival in our nation's capital. Then, in the heat of the storm, the Flyers trip up to Brooklyn was halted as New York got more snow than they were expecting. And with Washington D.C. digging themselves out on Sunday, the Capitals and Penguins game was postponed as the city was still on lockdown.

Despite all of this, Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin would not be bested by the snow, as he was out and about getting gas and plowing neighbors yards with a snow blower because RUSSIA.

Trending Down

Jonathan Drouin's tale goes from bad to worse

The latest development for Jonathan Drouin and the Tampa Bay Lightning has thrown a whole new twist into the saga. After being relegated to the AHL due to underperformance, Drouin failed to show up for a game in Toronto with his club, the Syracuse Crunch. As such, the Lightning immediately suspended him from the organization as punishment for the no-show.

With Drouin's trade stock in free fall, this move has had the complete opposite effect of what his agent wanted when he requested the forward sit out a few days, as they were "advised a trade involving [Drouin] was moving closer to completion."

The former third overall pick in the 2013 NHL Draft has had quite the rough time with his franchise and this situation has probably tarnished their standing together, as Drouin has been looking for a trade since November.

12-game win streaks stop at Florida

Florida is at the center of another broken win streak. This time, however, the Chicago Blackhawks saw their 12-game winning streak snapped in Tampa Bay, just a few weeks after the neighboring Panthers saw their dozen game winning streak disappear in Vancouver. No one's allowed to have a win streak over 12 games this season, it seems.

The sudden drop off in play for the Blackhawks isn't surprising, as they -- at the time of this writing -- have lost their last two to both the Florida teams by a combined score of 6-1. Both Chicago and the St. Louis Blues have played the highest number of games out of any team in the NHL coming into the All-Star break with 52. It's not hard to imagine the Blackhawks would be limping into the break after such a high over the last few weeks, especially since they're one of the least rested teams in the league right now. With just one game left until the break for the Blackhawks, don't be alarmed if they continue to stay checked out.

Injuries continue to pile up for Edmonton

As lucky as the Oilers have been snagging the first overall lottery picks, they haven't been able to keep them healthy. Edmonton's Ryan Nugent-Hopkins will be out long-term for the Oilers, marking the third first overall pick to be injured this season for more than a few days. With Nugent-Hopkins joining Connor McDavid and Nail Yakupov -- who recently returned from injury -- three quarters of the Oilers first overall picks have been injured this season.

A blocked shot is the culprit for the hand injury, one that will keep Nugent-Hopkins out of the lineup for 6-8 weeks. With the trade deadline closing in within the next month and a few weeks, another name goes off the board for the Oilers.

As the first overall pick in the 2010 draft, Taylor Hall better watch his back.