There are desperate acts, and then there are acts of a team out of answers and sense.
Today's news is the latter. The story out of the morning skate is that John Scott -- he of the absent hockey skill, the inability to skate, and uselessness in a playoff game that involves next to no fighting -- will dress. Some will scream that the Hawks are so banged up at forward that there is no choice, but don't you buy it. Jake Dowell is still healthy, and could skate at a wing. It wouldn't add up to much, but he could at least take a regular shift for 10 minutes. If it's size the Hawks want, Rob Klinhammer is with the team and is 6' 3". He managed 17 goals in Rockford. He can't be the total dolt that Scott is. But no, the Hawks have gone for the option that simply will make Vancouver laugh. And they already are. Here was Kevin Bieksa's quote when asked about Scott: "When a 6-8 guy challenges you that can't skate? You usually say no and go around him and score."
Where Quenneville is going with this, I have no idea. There is no way that John Scott is going to rankle what appears to be a newly disciplined and focus Vancouver side. It's such an obvious ploy they'd have to be twice as dumb as they were the previous two years to fall for it. And they're twice as smart now. And Scott will not play for more than three minutes, because if he can even get regularly matched up against the Canucks fourth line, they are far faster than him and he won't be able to keep up. Oh, and that's where Jannik Hansen -- he of the goal in each game -- hangs out. It is beyond explanation.
It's actually the perfect metaphor for this season, which came up short in part due to poor coaching and poor managing. The fact that this blob of nothingness is even on the roster is a crime in itself. Was it a bone to Coach Q from Stan Bowman to give Quenneville his beloved "physical presence" which Scott has proven beyond doubt that he doesn't provide? If so, the tail is wagging the dog here. Scott should have been taken away as an option long ago, but he hasn't been as Bowman cowers to his coach.
And while GMs don't make the lineup and never should interfere with that, here's one instance where the GM has to inform his coach, the coach who works for him, that this is simply not an option. You don't go out to beat the best team in the league who are aching to put the knife through your heart tonight with a player who can't skate, can't play, can't anything. You don't go into this game forcing some of your already leg-weary forwards to take on more minutes because the moron you threw out there to accomplish nothing can't skate for more than three minutes in the first.
But here we are.
