Elliotte Friedman first reported in October that the NHL was looking into updating the format for their All-Star Skills Competition. He noted that the NHL wants to try to take out events that the players struggle with and add events that make it look like the players are having fun.
Back in March, the Pittsburgh Penguins tweeted out a video of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin competing in what they called the “Extreme Puck Shooting” challenge. Crosby and Malkin shot pucks from the second level concourse of PPG Paints Arena looking to score on a net placed at centre ice. For the second round, they replaced the standard sized net with a smaller one.
The Penguins' tweet even threw in a suggestion that this event be added to the 2020 All-Star Skills Competition.
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This past weekend, Friedman reported during Saturday Headlines that the NHL may indeed be looking to add some version of this event to the Skills Competition this year. He mentioned that, if this event were to take place, the All-Stars would likely be shooting from the end of the arena, rather than from centre ice as the Pens did. This change would be made so that the netting that is normally above the glass around the end boards could be dropped over that section of the crowd to keep the fans safe from any pucks that didn't make it to the ice surface.
Source: Sportsnet
