One of the biggest questions this year is whether or not the increased minutes for John Scott are helping the Blackhawks or not. Last year he played in 40 games in the regular season. So far this season, he has played in 13. Last year penalties were a problem for Scott (he had 72 PIM). This year has been much better so far. He is much more disciplined. This year he only has 4 PIM and has played much cleaner hockey. He isn’t getting caught behind and hooking or slashing someone because he has to make up ground.
Over the offseason, Scott worked on his skating and puck handling. At the beginning of the season, it wasn’t apparent that he worked on anything at all, but he hasn’t looked too terrible lately. He has been on the 3rd defensive pairing for most of his starts, but got a chance to play forward in Carcillo’s place against the Kings on Saturday. He has played better this season compared to last season, but the stats don’t show it. He is a -2 this season. That isn’t very good.
I’m not a big John Scott supporter, but you have to admit that he has improved his game. Just because that means he improve from being terrible to just being bad doesn’t mean he didn’t improve. If he keeps improving every offseason, he could be a decent player in 5 years. The fact that Quenneville has confidence in him to become a better player might be enough motivation to work hard every offseason in order to play more and more each year.
Scott is getting more and more minutes and has been playing better now that he actually plays a real shift. With a lot of hard work during the offseason, he could become an everyday defenseman. If John Scott could figure out how to skate and use his size right, he could be a great defenseman.
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