Jan 24 2009
NHL Skills Competition
Tonight the NHL’s best players will faceoff in the Skills Competition as the East takes on the West in this great tradition. The whole event is getting some big publicity as it takes part in Montreal whose franchise is celebrating its 100th anniversary. There will be 6 events in total and I will break them down and show who is participating in each.
The first event is the fastest skater. Each player will line up on the center ice line and make one complete lap around the rink. The player that completes the lap in the fastest time will win the competition. Competiting for the East will be Zach Parise, Jeff Carter, and Jay Bouwmeester. For the West it will be Brian Campbell, Mason Raymond, and Andrew Cogliano. Mike Gartner holds the record for this competition completing his lap in 13.386 seconds back in 1996.
The second event will be the Fan Fav Breakaway challenge in which each shooter will receive one minute to try as many different breakaway moves as they can with no restrictions, meaning, NHL penalty shot rules do not apply. This has got to be the most exciting competition of the night as no one really knows what some of these stars are capable of. Shooting for the East will be Martin St. Louis, Alex Kovalev, Steven Stamkos, and Alex Ovechkin. For the West it will be Pat Kane and Ryan Getzlaf.
The 3rd event showcases the games up and coming stars in the Youngstars game. This game consists of three 6 minute periods with 2 teams of 9 players and a goalie. The game is much like a pickup game at your local rink as it is running clock and there is only one faceoff, and that is to start the period. Otherwise once you score, you back up and let the other team start from their own end. The Rookies team will have the following players: Patrik Berglund, Mikkel Boedker, Drew Doughty, Michael Frolik, James Neal, Luke Schenn, Steven Stamkos, Kris Versteeg, Blake Wheeler. Goaltender Steve Mason will be replaced by Pekka Rinne. The Sophmores roster will consist of: Nicklas Backstrom, Andrew Cogliano, Brandon Dubinsky, Kris Letang, Bryan Little, Milan Lucic, Mason Raymond, Devin Setoguchi, Marc Staal, Dave Bolland, David Perron, and Carey Price.
The 4th event is my personal favorite, the Accuracy Shooting. This event has players recieve 8 passes from the corner and try and hit 4 targets in each corner of the net. The object is to take as few shots as possible to win, so the goal is get 4 for 4. This feat has only been done a few times in the event’s history. It has been done 5 times to be exact by 2 of the games greatest, Mark Messier and Ray Bourque who accomplished the feat twice along with Tomas Kaberle and Jeremy Roenick. Shooting in this competition will be: Marc Savard, Jonathon Toews, Mike Modano, Ilya Kovalchuk, Jarome Iginla, Evgeni Malkin, Dany Heatley, and Tomas Kaberle who is the reigning champion.
The 5th event is the hardest shot competition. Big Zdeno Chara has won the competition the past 2 seasons and looks to continue that trend this year. I think this is finally the year in which Al Iafrate’s record gets broken. In 1993, Iafrate blasted the puck 105.2 mph! Shooting this year will be Zdeno Chara, Sheldon Souray, Vincent Lecavalier, Shea Weber, Mike Komisarek and Mark Streit. Souray is my favorite to win this year and I think he can break the record. In an Edmonton Oilers exclusive skills competition, Souray was clocked at over 106 mph!
The 6th and final event will incorporate every player in the all star game for the Elimination Shootout. The total tally of players is 36 shooters and 4 goalies. The rules are simple, score and you advance to the next round, don’t and you are out. This will continue until there is only one shooter left.
I hope you all enjoy this, I know I always have and that I definitely will tonight. Since the Sabres are in the East, I have always been favored towards that conference so hopefully they win it this year.
-Sabs Hockey Nut
