Day 2 of the 2015 NHL All-Star festivities contains my personal favorite event: The Skills Competition.
The Skills Competition between Team Toews and Team Foligno will take place at 6:00 PM CST at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. It will be aired live in the USA on NBSCN, but you can also watch it online through NBC Sports Extra. For those of you in Canada, CBC will televise the event in English, and TVA Sports will broadcast it in French.
The six events of the Skills Competition in order are the Bridgestone NHL Fastest Skater™, Honda NHL Breakaway Challenge™, DraftKings NHL Accuracy Shooting™, Gatorade NHL Skills Challenge Relay™, AMP NHL Hardest Shot™, and the Discover NHL Shootout™.
And now, here is a breakdown for each event.
Bridgestone NHL Fastest Skater Competition™
Points available: 5.
Four players from each team will participate in this event. Two players will race each other at a time. The rink will be split in half lengthwise, and each player will skate one lap in his half of the rink.
The winners from each race will earn his team a point. If there is a tie in the race, both teams will earn a point.
The fastest overall skater will earn his team an additional point. In the unlikely event that the fastest time recorded occurs in a tie, those two skaters will race again.
Honda NHL Breakaway Challenge™
Points available: 1.
This is essentially a trick shot shootout, and the winner will be picked by the fans via Twitter.
Each skater will have three shots, and teams will alternate after each shot. Players will do just about anything to leave an impression, such as PK Subban borrowing Jeff Skinner’s jersey and Patrick Kane dressing as Superman. A great thing about this competition is NHL penalty shot rules do not apply, so, yes, spin-o-ramas are allowed.
The fans voted Ryan Johansen for one of the six spots for this challenge. The other five participants will be determined by team captains.
DraftKings NHL Accuracy Shooting™
Points available: 5.
If you recall correctly, Jamie Benn won this competition at the 2012 NHL Skills Competition.
Who can hit four targets first? That’s the objective of this competition. Jeremy Roenick famously hit four targets in four shots.
The winner of each round will earn his team a point. The player who hits all four targets in the fastest time will earn his team the fifth and final point of the contest.
Gatorade NHL Skills Challenge Relay™
Points Available: 3.
Sixteen players from each team will participate: Fourteen skaters and two goalies.
This relay will have five “skills.”
The first skill is One-Timers. Three shooters, one passer. Each shooter has to score two goals on one-timers.
After each team completes this relay, the Passing “skill” will follow.
The player participating has to pass a puck into four tiny nets.
Before anybody gets confused, in the past, the passers had to pass the puck into six of those nets. To make this contest a little less daunting, it’s been reduced to four.
Once the participant succeeds in shooting pucks into all four nets, the next “skill” can commence: the Puck Control Relay.
A player in this event will skate through an obstacle of cones while controlling the puck.
Once this skater finishes skating through the course, the Stick Handling “skill” will take place.
The Stick Handling skater must maneuver the puck through a series of pucks.
The fifth and final “skill” will be Goalie Goals. Yes, you read that right. Goalie goals are going to be scored in the Skills Competition.
Each goalie in this event has to score two goals while shooting from the opposite goal to close out the heat and give their team a time.
There will be a total of four relays, two for each team.
The team with fastest heat in each round will earn a point. A bonus point will be awarded to the team with the fastest overall time.
AMP NHL Hardest Shot™
Points Available: 5.
Also known as, “Who Can Shoot Harder than Shea Weber?”
Four players from each team will take part in this event. Each player will get two attempts to unleash the hardest slap shot he can from the high slot.
This event will be a head-to-head competition, and players will alternate shots. The player must start his stride from the offensive blue line.
In the event the shot isn’t registered by the speedometer, the shooter will get a mulligan. If the player’s stick breaks, he will get a mulligan.
The hardest shot of the two will be recorded.
The winner of each head-to-head matchup will win his team a point. If a matchup ends in a tie, both teams earn a point. The player who unleashes the hardest shot will award his team with a bonus fifth point. Now, in the seemingly rare event of two players tying for the hardest shot, those two players will have a run-off for the bonus point.
Discover NHL Shootout™
Point Breakdown: One point for each goal scored. Two points for each goal scored with a Discover Card puck.
All 48 players will participate in this event. There will be three two-minute rounds, with seven skaters and one goalie playing for each team in each round. Teams will alternate shots, and each player has a maximum of 10 seconds to take a shot. Every third puck will be a Discover Card puck.
The teams will shoot in rotation until time runs out. And, unlike the Breakaway Challenge, NHL penalty shot rules apply in this contest.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is everything you need to know about the Skills Competition. Now, let’s see what Tyler Seguin and Team Toews do.