The NHL Skills Competition is an event that plenty of fans look forward to more often than the actual All-Star Game itself. With four players involved, the Lightning have the most representatives in this weekend’s festivities. It appeared as though they’d have plenty of chances to win.
However, Connor McDavid, Alex Pietrangelo, Marc-Andre Fleury, Alex Ovechkin, Johnny Gaudreau, and Brock Boeser stole the show at the skills competition.
McDavid became the league’s first repeat winner in the Fastest Skater competition, Pietrangelo was victorious in the Passing Callenge, while Fleury came out on top in the Save Streak. Ovechkin dominated a rather pedestrian Hardest Shot event, Gaudreau took the top spot in the Puck Control Relay, and Boeser concluded the night by stealing the show in Accuracy Shooting.
Early on, it seemed as though Brayden Point had a chance to come away with the title of Fastest Skater.
The Tampa Bay Lightning’s second-year center took the ice first and raced out to a time of 13.579 seconds. Six more skaters attempted to best Point’s time, with Nathan MacKinnon and Jack Eichel coming the closest in their attempt to take first place. However, it was Edmonton’s McDavid who would become the first player to win the event in back-to-back years, taking home the title with a time of 13.454 seconds.
While passing is obviously an important skill to have as a hockey player, it doesn’t make for the most exciting event at the skills competition.
The Lightning’s Nikita Kucherov went first in the Passing Challenge and struggled with a time of 1:39.562. Los Angeles’s Drew Doughty fared even worse at 1:47.415, eventually firing the puck at some of the targets in the early portion of the contest and basically pretending like it was the Hardest Shot competition. Eventually, Alex Pietrangelo of St. Louis won the competition with a time of 46.610 seconds. He and Minnesota’s Eric Staal (54.679) were the only players to complete the course in under a minute.
Arguably the most entertaining event of the night was the first ever Save Streak competition.
Goalies from each team faced a full lineup of another division in a shootout competition and also got to choose their own music. Vegas’s Marc-Andre Fleury got everyone’s attention by choosing music from Disney’s Frozen soundtrack, and then proceeded to freeze out Atlantic Division shooters. He ended the night as the winner of this even by stopping 14 consecutive shots, one more than Nashville’s Pekka Rinne. Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers stopped five in a row, while the Lightning’s Andrei Vasilevskiy only denied three shots in a row. The funniest moment occurred when Nashville’s PK Subban threw his glove at Lundqvist before shooting, only to see his shot turned aside.
A new feature of this year’s Puck Control Relay was three towers with slots that lit up, forcing the participants to have to lift the puck through the corresponding slot.
Calgary’s Gaudreau went first and eventually won the event with a time of 24.65 seconds, nearly four seconds better than John Tavares of the New York Islanders. This event featured a couple of comical moments, as Ottawa’s Erik Karlsson and Dallas’s Tyler Seguin picked the puck up and put it on their stick before passing it through the slots in the tower.
In past years, the Hardest Shot Competition was often either the domain of Boston’s Zdeno Chara or Montreal’s Shea Weber.
With neither of those players participating this year, it was Ovehckin who dominated the competition. The Washington sniper won the event with a shot that registered at a speed of 101.3 mph. His first attempt hit 98.8 mph. He was the only player to hit triple digits. Atlantic Division and Lightning captain Steven Stamkos took two shots that hit 95.2 and 95.9 mph.
In this year’s Accuracy Shooting contest, each player had to hit five LED targets when they lit up in the shortest amount of time.
Former Lightning center and current New Jersey Devil Brian Boyle, who received multiple loud ovations throughout the night, held the top spot early on with a time of 11.626 seconds. Unfortunately for him, Vancouver’s sharp-shooting rookie, Brock Boeser, had other ideas. Boeser was the fourth shooter and eventually ended up winning the event with a time of 11.136 seconds. One of his shots even damaged the light on one of the targets, causing a delay before Boston’s Brad Marchand took his turn. Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos was the final shooter, finishing in sixth place with a time of 21.923 seconds.
