San Jose Sharks forward Joe Thornton doesn’t usually make time to watch the NHL All-Star Game, unless he’s competing in it. He takes time off, leaves hockey behind for a weekend.

But this year? He’s watching All-Star weekend.

Because of John Scott.

“One of the best guys ever,” said Thornton of Scott, his friend from their time together in San Jose. “Can't wait to see him out there, and I'll watch it now that he's playing in it.”

Scott, a 33-year-old veteran enforcer who has played just 11 games this year, was selected to the game via a fan vote*. The fan campaign has stoked strong emotions, both good and bad, throughout the hockey world. Nashville Predators general manager David Poile called Scott’s candidacy “unfortunate.” Some members of the media ripped it, while others praised it.

So why did Scott decided to put the controversies, and the motivations of those fans, aside and attend All-Star weekend in Nashville?

Scott is going to the game for his family.

When it was announced he had made the team as the Pacific Division’s captain, his wife and two kids pushed for him to head to Nashville to partake in the newly revamped 3-on-3 tournament with all the NHL’s top players.

“It’s one of those things where I never thought I’d be able to get to go, so when I found out it was a possibility my family was like, ‘you have to go. It’s going to be so cool,’” Scott said in a phone conversation with Puck Daddy last week. “They’re excited for it – probably more excited than I am. It’ll be one of those ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ experiences.”

The only way Scott doesn’t go is if his wife goes into labor. The couple is expecting twins soon.

“I’m not going to exert my wife that much. I don’t want her to go into labor during the game,” Scott joked. “I think everyone’s just getting a little panicky now that I’m going.”

That includes those in the NHL that are concerned what Scott in a skills competition and a 3-on-3 tournament is going to look like.

“Everyone was worried the whole game’s going to go, kind of to (crap), but the All-Star Game hasn’t been going well the last few years, so maybe they’re trying to make it more serious and stuff,” said Scott. “I just kind of try to tune out all that stuff and focus on what I have to deal with in Arizona and we’ll worry about the All-Star Game when I get there.”

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Stu Grimson never had a chance to fight John Scott, having thrown his last punch in the NHL in 2002 after years as a fan favorite enforcer.

But he understands Scott’s All-Star Game inclusion: No matter how Scott became part of the event, Grimson believes he earned the position through support of hockey fans.

“I’ve heard folks say, and I think this is an unfortunate term, it’s like ‘voting the nerd to be prom king’ kind of thing. I don’t know. There’s this possibility for things to work out this way but the fans wouldn’t get behind some cause célèbre and have something like this happen,” said Grimson, now a Nashville Predators TV analyst.

“Unless you want to revamp the way the current system works, I think everybody has to look at it and just kind of say, ‘Let’s just enjoy it for the moment and not make a big fuss over it.’”

There’s sort of a ‘last hurrah’ type feel with Scott and the All-Star Game, both for him and the enforcer role. He said he believed last season would be his final year in the NHL and was surprised when the Arizona Coyotes signed him to a one-year $575,000 contract in the offseason. With fighting down in the league, Scott’s going to the All-Star Game is being billed as one of the final crowning moments for old school enforcers.

But at its core, it’s also a celebration of Scott’s career, his perseverance, his personality and his intelligence

At Michigan Tech, the 6-foot-8 Scott was a hulking defenseman. After he graduated, he only fought so he could continue to play the game. He has a degree in engineering and has the smarts to go into that field. But he’s never considered it because of his love of hockey.

“I didn’t start fighting until I made it to [the Chicago Blackhawks] and started fighting a little more, but it’s nice to kind of go back and show people I’m not just a one-dimensional player, I can do different things. I can actually make a pass and shoot the puck and skate a little bit,” Scott said.

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