Let's revisit the last three weeks in the NHL one more time:
1. Fans vote Coyotes enforcer John Scott into the NHL All-Star Game as Pacific Division captain. It is largely seen as a joke, because John Scott is not a good enough player to be an NHL All-Star.
2. The Coyotes trade Scott to the Canadiens, an Atlantic Division team, who then send him to the AHL, making him ineligible to play in the NHL All-Star Game.
3. Reports indicate that the NHL originally asked Scott to drop out of the game, and when he didn't, they orchestrated the trade in an attempt to get Scott out of their beloved, sanctimonious All-Star Game.
4. Marc Bergevin, GM of the Canadiens, comes out and says that he "can't really tell you why he had to make that trade," fueling those reports.
5. Fans backlash, because of course.
6. The NHL "does the right thing!" and allows Scott to play in the game.
That's all bad enough to give the NHL a black eye. They a) went against the literal will of their paying customers, and b) forced a human being with a young family to move from Arizona to friggin' Newfoundland ... over the sanctity of the All-Star Game.
As it turns out, that's just the beginning of the NHL's reprehensible behavior on this subject.
On Thursday -- just as players and media and league executives are touching down in Nashville for the All-Star Weekend -- Scott published his account of what happened throughout this whole mess. He revealed that the NHL tried to shame him out of the All-Star Game by using his kids as ammo. Here's Scott in his own words, writing for The Players' Tribune:
But while I don’t deserve to be an All-Star, I also don’t think I deserve to be treated like I’ve been by the league throughout this saga. I’m an NHL player — and, whatever my set of skills may be, that I’m an NHL player is no accident.
...
But I’m one of them. And that means a lot to me.
It means a lot to my family.
So when someone from the NHL calls me and says, "Do you think this is something your kids would be proud of?"
… That’s when they lost me.
That was it, right there. That was the moment.
Because, while I may not deserve to be an NHL All-Star, I know I deserve to be the judge of what my kids will — and won’t — be proud of me for.
...
When they see me on the ice on Sunday, will my girls be proud of me? Who knows. I like to think so. But I know they’ll be there for me — for their big, goofy dad — no matter what. They’ll be there, in the stands, cheering me on — wearing their Scott #28 jerseys, and watching me try my best, having some fun and fulfill a dream I’ve had since I was, well, their age.
Good on you, John Scott. You just made thousands of new fans, and we'll all be rooting for you in Nashville this weekend. Maybe not as hard as your little girls will be, but we'll be there too.
The NHL, on the other hand? Not so much.