CHICAGO -- When he looked up from untying his skates after the Blackhawks’ 4-1 win over the Anaheim Ducks on Friday, defenseman/forward John Scott looked surprised at the throng of press in front of his locker stall.
After all, Scott isn’t named a star of the game very often nor does he usually do interviews about anything but fighting.
“That’s a first,” Scott said of being named second star. “It was pretty cool. I didn’t believe them at first but it was neat.”
Scott earned his moment in the spotlight thanks to his first point of the season -- an assist on the Hawks' first goal -- and his first fight of the year, an easy win over Sheldon Brookbank.
“It was nice to get the monkey off my back with that too,” Scott said.
His story is nice but the bigger theme of the night was the overall secondary scoring the Hawks got in the win. Yes, Patrick Sharp and Marian Hossa did their usual damage with goals but so did Jamal Mayers and Dave Bolland.
“Obviously it’s a bonus if we score,” Mayers said of the fourth line.
Mayers, Scott and Andrew Brunette all touched the puck on the former’s first goal. And he and Scott both dropped the gloves.
“We could use some production from that group,” Joel Quenneville said of his bottom six forwards.
Quenneville pulled a fast one on the Ducks, if they were even paying attention. He had Ben Smith running drills with the fourth line before the game while Scott stayed off to the side, as the extra forward usually does during warmups but Scott played and Smith sat.
“We want to keep [Scott] playing,” Quenneville said. “It was an opportunity to get him some more ice time, I thought he was good up front, he was positionally aware, had a long stick, did a good job.”
Scott admitted he was thinking about a Gordie Howe hat trick during the second intermission -- achieved when a player has a fight, a goal and an assist in the same game. It turned out he and Mayers were one shy each of achieving it.
“It’s good,” Scott said. “I usually don’t get many points or any points so it’s nice to help out the team a little bit…It’s tough for those top two lines and we rely on them so much. And they’ve been producing for the first 30 games so it’s nice to help them out and take the slack off a little bit.”
Scott and Mayers, the No. 2 and 3 stars of the game. Who would have thought?
“That doesn’t happen too often but we’ll take it when we can get it,” Mayers said.