Toronto Maple Leafs: A Skills Competition Rundown

The All-Star weekend kicks off in San Jose, California tonight and brings with it the NHL’s very best, including Toronto Maple Leafs Auston Matthews and John Tavares.

The stars will begin the festivities tomorrow with the All-Star Skills Competition at 9 p.m. ET, and will be followed up by the All-Star Game at 8 p.m. ET Saturday night.  For Toronto Maple Leafs fans, it should be a great time.

Hockey fans across the continent typically vote for captains for their division teams and tune in on Saturday night to see which division’s stars can best the rest, however the Friday night Skills Competition is an entertaining and all-too-often overlooked element of the All-Star event.

To rectify this injustice and hopefully spark some interest in what is admittedly my favorite part of the weekend, here’s a rundown on the annual NHL Skills Competition:

What to Expect

The Skills Competition is divided into smaller competitions, testing an individual aspect of a player’s game, including speed, passing, goaltending, puck control, shot strength, and shot accuracy.

Players can only compete in one category; so no, Connor McDavid can’t win every category. The following overview is derived from the descriptions of the events that can be found on nhl.com.

The Fastest Skater competition sees skaters face off one by one in a rink-round lap to see who can complete the loop in the fastest time. Two-year defending champion Connor McDavid will likely seek to defend his title tomorrow night, and since Kasperi Kapanen isn’t an All-Star, he’s the favourite to win for a third consecutive year.

The Premier Passer contest is split into three components. The first segment allows ten pucks to each contestant, who must hit three targets to advance.

The second requires players to saucer pass over a barrier and land the puck into four small nets. In the final component, the contestant must hit targets that light up at three-second intervals. The player who completes all three components in the fastest time wins the challenge.

In the Hardest Shot challenge, players get two attempts per round for two rounds to take slap shots from the blue line to the net. The harder of their two attempts will be registered, and whichever player has the fastest shot speed after all players have gone is the winner.

The current record for this challenge is held by Zdeno Chara in 2012, with runner up Shea Weber at 108.1 in 2016. With neither in this years roster (nor last year’s champion, Alex Ovechkin), this fan favorite challenge is anyone’s to win.

The Puck Control competition, like the Premier Passer, is broken into three components. Firstly, the contestant stickhandles through a line of pucks. Next, they skate through an array of cones. Lastly, the player must lift a puck through an illuminated rung of a ladder. The player who completes all three challenges in the fastest time wins this challenge.

The Accuracy Shooting Challenge has players stand a uniform distance from the goal line and attempt to shoot each of one five targets in the net as they light up. Like the Premier Passer challenge, these lights alternate at three-second intervals.

The fastest shooter to hit all five targets while they are lit wins. In 2016, John Tavares won this challenge in 12.294 seconds, and in 2017, Auston Matthews was the favourite to win until being beaten by a slim margin by Sidney Crosby. Here’s hoping Matthews will be able to secure his victory this go around.

A personal favourite, the Save Streak challenge is won by the goaltender who makes the most saves. Starting with nine scoring attempts, if the goalie keeps them all out, the challenge continues until they allow a goal. This event debuted in 2018, so the only current winner is Vegas’ Marc-Andre Fleury, who is hoping to defend his championship.

But Wait, There’s More

Come for the activities, stay for the players. The Skills Competition is a rare opportunity to hear from the players and watch them interact outside of the game setting. From memorably goofy performances like Carey Price’s backward save to mic’d up commentary from PK Subban, it’s an opportunity to see the players as people, which makes it a unique event in the NHL season.

If I’ve sold you on the Skills Competition, you can tune in on Sportsnet, CBC, and TVA Sports in Canada, and NBCSN in the U.S. at 9 p.m. ET.

Past winners from Wikipedia.com