From the toughest enforcer on the ice during his 10-year NHL career, to unlikely and inspirational 2016 All-Star MVP, to family man, to an entertaining and informative podcast host, John Scott always makes it interesting.
When NBC Sports Chicago caught up with the member of the Blackhawks from 2010-2012 as he sat in a Costco parking lot, ready to grab supplies for his family’s home in Traverse City, Michigan, it was no different.
"I'm going to go in and tear the place down and take everything they have," Scott joked.
The once league-feared 6'8, 260 lb. scrapper — who scored five goals and played in 286 NHL games — is concerned about his family and the uncertainty of the future with the COVID-19 pandemic, just like the rest of us.
For Scott, it may be a taller order with five daughters ranging from two-eight, and his wife Danielle expecting another child.
"I've just been doing everything I can to keep her from going crazy and just trying to put out fires left and right," Scott said. "Obviously, it's unchartered territory. If we talk in a month, I'm sure it'll be a completely different conversation because I can still go inside right now and go to stores, but if this thing blows up like it's expected to, I don't know, people are going to go crazy."
John and Danielle have homeschooled their two oldest children for two years, so they were somewhat prepared in having kids at home for a long stretch. Instead of getting out to go to the studio to record his Dropping the Gloves podcast, Scott was going to use Zoom to record his latest episode from home Thursday.
NHL
"We were kind of naive to the whole thing," the Edmonton native said. "We were like, 'Oh, it'll blow over, it'll blow over.' But now I think we're being hit with it. It's going to last a long time for many months."
As a player, John experienced a great deal of uncertainty when he was a member of the Buffalo Sabres during the 2012-2013 NHL lockout, but the NHL pause caused by coronavirus is a different animal.
"I had the reverse kind of thing where I thought the year was a wash with the lockout, then all of a sudden it was a scramble because the league's starting. I can't imagine it being reversed where you're getting ready for the playoffs and the rug's pulled from underneath you and you don't have a league anymore.
"I talked to a few guys and they don't know what to do. There's no way to train. There's nothing to do.
"It'll be interesting if it starts back up, how out of shape guys will be because you can't sit around for a month or two and just expect guys to be in shape, especially these young kids. People are going to get hurt if they don't give them at least a week or two to get back into shape because this is so weird."
The former NHLer sees the pause or potential cancellation of the 2019-2020 season making life difficult for players who are about to become free agents that had a down year.
"Those guys are going to see more ice time at the end of the year because of trades and what not. Guys in the minor leagues get called up at the end of the year, the second rounders or third rounders, this is their time to kind of prove themselves the last 10 games, so it'll be a strange offseason.
"It's a crumby situation, everyone's dealing with it. It is what it is, man. If you didn't produce for the first half of the season, that's on you. It just stinks for those young kids who [should] get their chance and now there's a whole new round of draft picks coming up and you might not get your chance at all."
If the season isn't cancelled, but resumes with a 24-team playoff — where a squad like the Blackhawks could make it in the mix — Scott believes it's anybody's game.
"If you have a hot goaltender, you can take down a number one seed no problem. It would be whatever team is the most prepared. Whatever team did the work when they were off, and who knows if they just jump right in the playoffs right now with the top eight and go from there.
"I would love to see a play-in game for the eighth, ninth seed if they're close enough or the tenth, eighth, ninth seed have a little three-game tournament or something. Whoever is hot enough, whatever goalie is in shape, I think that team kind of runs all the way to the Stanley Cup, if it comes to that point. How exciting though, that would be super fun to watch."
Scott also thinks any team could walk away with the Stanley Cup if they league resumed from the pause this season and upheld the usual 16-team playoff.
"Especially those top teams, guys who have older players, if they don't have some kind of training before the playoffs or whatever they do, guys will get hurt," he said. "I know in training camp, when you're coming off a full summer of full-on training, you're feeling it. Your things, your legs, you need to take days off where you don't do anything, it's just so hard.
"You can't just jump right into a playoff stretch last week of the season. It's just, you have to take care of your body. And if you don't do that and expect guys to play every other day, guys will get hurt, young legs will be better, there will be massive upsets in the first round definitely, without a doubt."
John's heard how hard it is for players to stay anywhere near game shape during the pause.
"It's still early," Scott said. "I think guys are just kind of at home, just taking care of their house things and it literally is whatever you have at home, you use. Some guys have home gyms and get some workouts in.
"There are guys who don't do anything because they don't have anything at home. They live in a condo building and you're not going to go to the community workout center right now.
"I'm sure they'll do what the Nets did, they'll test the whole team and once the team's tested and they're negative, they'll have them come into their facility and workout there. If it extends longer than a month, I'm guessing that's what the plan will be. But right now, I don't think anybody is doing anything."
Ultimately, John believes it may be best to cancel the remainder of this year's season.
"I think you would just start fresh at the beginning of the season [next year]," Scott said. "It is what it is. You'd just say, 'Listen, it was an act of god, we lost that season. Let's start fresh in September and we'll go from there.' The free agents are free agents, the teams that signed and traded for those guys, like Tampa Bay signed, what are you going to do?
"It is what it is, but just start fresh. I don't think it would have a lasting impression. It would hurt teams like Carolina and Tampa Bay who loaded up for the playoffs, but it's a casualty of business sometimes.
"If I was an older guy and you're asking me to jump into the playoffs in two months, I'd be very nervous. Especially not skating or training. It'd be hard. It'd be really, really hard. There'd definitely be a risk.
"I bet you if this lasts two, three, four weeks guys are just going to say, 'Listen, let's just call it. I don't want to keep training. I don't want to keep playing the 'what if' game. Let's just have a wash and we'll start fresh next year."
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