Scott emerges as lethal playoff scoring threat for OHL's Colts

Every hockey playoff year needs an unheralded player to emerge as an unstoppable goal-scoring threat. In the 2016 OHL playoffs, that player is Justin Scott.

In 11 games, the Barrie Colts overage winger has 14 goals – already half as many as he tallied during the regular season. That prowess earned the undrafted Scott an NHL entry-level with the Columbus Blue Jackets last week.

He’s been a key contributor on a team hosting Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final Thursday night against the Niagara IceDogs.

“I didn’t really know coming into these playoffs that I’d have an outburst like I did,” Scott said. “I didn’t change anything up from what I did during the season. It’s just a combination of my teammates and my linemates giving me the puck.

“This playoff run has been really good, but it helps when the team wins.”

What Scott has accomplished over the last month seems like a classic case of an out-of-left-field outburst. But delve a little deeper and it becomes more apparent Scott has been building slowly towards such a coming-out party.

Scott loved hockey from the time he was six when his grandparents bought him has first set of equipment. He was hardly a prodigy. Scott played A-level in Burlington, Ont., until as he approached his teenage years.

In fact, he was arguably a better at baseball. Scott pitched and manned third base for the Burlington Bulls and continued playing up to and including the summer the Colts picked him in the fourth round (80th overall) of the 2011 OHL draft.

Scott followed in the footsteps of his father, Gord, an accomplished softball pitcher who was inducted into the North American Fastpitch Association Hall of Fame in 2003.

“I used to love baseball. I still do, but hockey kind of took over,” said Scott, who counted his curveball as his best pitch. “As a kid I have a lot of memories in the summer being at the ballpark just watching him pitch.”

Scott honed his skills on the ice at his own pace with little in the way of pressure from his parents. Scott and his older brother Jeff were only asked if they were having fun. Their parents would mostly attend games and soak it all in.

Scott spent his 16-year-old season playing in the Ontario Junior Hockey League for his hometown Burlington Cougars to get some seasoning before starting his OHL career in Barrie. He made the Colts the next season, in 2012-13. His parents were the furthest thing from demanding. Two of the first inquires from his mom, Linda, were finding out the cost of room and board for the season (none) and if it would be possible for her youngest son to miss time in November to attend a family vacation in Florida (of course not).

“That’s a funny story,” said Scott of the latter query.

“That’s the one thing growing up now you see a lot of parents pushing their kids to play hockey,” the 20-year-old added. “It’s not going to happen if you’re going to throw it on them. You have to have the passion. I really did appreciate that my parents didn’t do that to me.”

Scott’s first couple years in the OHL were a bit of an adjustment. He arrived with a deer-in-the-headlights look and had to move from centre to the wing on the fourth line. He had raw talent, but needed some refinement.

Scott ended his second season on a high note by scoring a couple playoff goals. An exit meeting with head coach Dale Hawerchuk planted the seeds for future growth.

“I was always a hard worker, but I didn’t really know how to train properly,” Scott said. “I really had a good summer that 19-year-old summer. I didn’t know what to expect coming into that year. I broke out and had 30 goals. That gave me a lot of confidence.”

Scott spent his days landscaping, heavy manual work, and would work out and skate at night.

“That’s when I knew he was going to be a pro,” said London Knights director of scouting Ken Hornick, who was a member of Darrell Woodley’s scouting staff at the time in Barrie.

The Colts have had strong teams during Scott’s tenure in Barrie. He’s always played in the shadow of future NHLers such as Tanner Pearson, Aaron Ekblad, Joseph Blandisi and Andreas Athanasiou. Even now, players like Kevin Labanc and Andrew Mangiapane get more attention.

Scott had 58 regular season goals over the past two seasons. Just two were scored on the power play. Of his 14 playoff goals this spring, only one was registered while the Colts had a man advantage.

“You might not get as many shifts as you’d like, but I’m a pretty positive guy and I come from a pretty hard-nosed family,” Scott said. “If something’s not going your way, you have to work through it.

“Those guys would usually score in the first 30 seconds of the power play,” he added, chuckling. “I never complained.”

He has no reason to complain with the way things are going right now. From all the goals to an NHL contract, it’s been a pretty great stretch for Scott – one he hopes doesn’t end any time soon.

“I’m going to look to build off that and use it to an advantage,” he said of his deal with Columbus. “If we keep winning as a team, only good things can happen.”

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