As usual, All-Star weekend kicked off with the skills competition on Friday night. We watched the NHL's best compete against each other in a series of events, and it definitely didn't disappoint.
We began the night with the Bridgestone NHL Fastest Skater. Everyone thought that Connor McDavid would win his fourth consecutive fastest skater competition, but he ended finishing in second place despite posting his fastest time ever (13.215). New York Islanders star Mathew Barzal pulled off the surprise victory with a time of 13.175.
Mathew Barzal- 13.175 seconds
Connor McDavid- 13.215
Chris Kreider- 13.509
Jack Eichel- 13.540
Nathan MacKinnon- 13.895
Anthony Duclair- 14.005
Travis Konecny- 14.113
Quinn Hughes- 14.263
After an exciting fastest skater competition, we moved onto the Bud Light NHL Save Streak, where Jordan Binnington was a star. He won the competition with a save streak of 10, but Andrei Vasilevskiy wasn't far behind him with 9. Tomas Hertl even tried to get into Binnington's head by wearing a Justin Bieber mask, in reference to a bet that Bieber and Binnington had made recently.
Jordan Binnington vs Pacific- 10
Andrei Vasilevskiy vs Metropolitan- 9
Frederik Andersen vs Metropolitan- 7
Jacob Markstrom vs Central- 5
Braden Holtby vs Atlantic- 5
David Rittich vs Central- 4
Tristan Jarry vs Atlantic- 4
Connor Hellebuyck vs Pacific- 4
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Jaccob Slavin- 9.505 seconds
Leon Draisaitl- 10.257
Jonathan Huberdeau, Florida Panthers, 13.704
Alex Pietrangelo, St. Louis Blues, 13.763
Tyler Bertuzzi, Detroit Red Wings, 13.868
Mark Scheifele, Winnipeg Jets, 15.160
Tomas Hertl, San Jose Sharks, 17.161
Nico Hischier, New Jersey Devils, 19.550
After the accuracy competition, we watched the best Canadian and American women's players compete against each other in a 20 minute 3-on-3 game for the first time in All-Star Game history. The women put on a great showing, and Canada ended up winning the game 2-1. Melodie Daoust and Rebecca Johnston scored for the Canadians and Hilary Knight scored the lone goal for the Americans.
John Carlson was not able to repeat as the NHL's hardest shooter, he was dethroned by Shea Weber, who was making his return made to the Enterprise NHL Hardest Shot Competition for the first time in a few seasons. He's been impressive in this competition during his career, and if it wasn't for Zdeno Chara he would have the record for hardest shot of all-time. Anyways, Weber won the event after firing a 106.5 mile per hour bomb into the net. Elias Pettersson put on a good showing as well, despite being the only forward in the event, he finished third with a speed of 102.4 mph.
Former St. Louis Blues defenceman Al MacInnis made a guest appearance for the event and even took part in it. Despite being 56 years old and using a wood stick he still managed to fire a 100.4 mph bomb. MacInnis won the competition seven times during his career with his hardest shot coming in at 100.4 mph.
Shea Weber- 106.5 mph
John Carlson- 104.5
Elias Pettersson- 102.4
Victor Hedman- 102.1
Mark Giordano- 102.1
Seth Jones- 98.8
We finished off the night with a brand new event, the Gatorade NHL Shooting Stars competition, which featured eight NHL players and two women's All-Stars elevated on a platform behind the goal where they had to shoot pucks into a variety of targets positioned around the ice, each target varied in point value. The event was a nice change up to the skills competition and fans seem to have enjoyed it. It featured a guest appearance from Blues legends Brett Hull and Keith Tkachuk and Matthew Tkachuk taking off his Calgary Flames jersey to reveal a St. Louis Cardinals baseball jersey.
Patrick Kane and Mitch Marner were tied with 22 points each at the end of the event and had to play an extra round, Kane ended up collecting an extra two points and won the competition with 24. The two women's All-Stars Hilary Knight and Marie-Philip Poulin both had impressive performances in the competition as well.
Patrick Kane- 22 points... 2 points in OT
Mitch Marner- 22
Matthew Tkachuk- 20 points
Marie-Philip Poulin (CAN)- 15
Hilary Knight (USA)- 14
Tyler Seguin- 14
Ryan O'Reilly- 14
David Perron- 14
The 3-on-3 tournament will kick off tomorrow with the Atlantic vs Metropolitan Divisions, followed by the Pacific vs Central. The winners of those two games will then take each other on with hopes of winning the $1 million prize money.
NPQ
