NHL All-Star festivities return with Skills Competition

Columbus, OH (SportsNetwork.com) – The NHL’s Skills Competition won’t have that much of a different look despite the two-year hiatus for the showcase, but one notable absence may have an impact on perhaps one of the most popular events.

A new hardest shot champion is expected to be crowned on Saturday when the league’s All-Stars get together to show off some of their skill at Columbus’ Nationwide Arena.

The NHL has not held its All-Star weekend since 2012, with the lockout wiping out the event the following year and the Winter Olympics displacing the showcase in 2014.

One event that most fans look forward to seeing each year is the hardest shot, a competition that has been dominated recently by Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara.

Chara won the event in each of the past five competitions and in 2012 broke his own record for hardest shot by unleashing a rocket at 108.8 mph to get to the finals. He then edged Nashville’s Shea Weber with a 107.0 mph shot in the last round, topping Weber’s 106.0 mph shot.

While Weber will be eligible to participate this weekend, Chara did not join him as an All-Star, with a 19-game absence caused by a knee injury the culprit.

The last hardest shot winner other than Chara was Adrian Aucoin in 2004.

Like 2012, the All-Star teams will be decided by a fantasy draft conducted by captains Nick Foligno of Columbus and Chicago’s Jonathan Toews. Each of the 48 All-Stars and rookies picked for the showcase will compete in at least one of the six events. Each event has a certain number of points up for grabs, usually awarded by the best team performance along with individual showing.

For example, there are five points available in the fastest skater competition as four players from each team go head-to-head over four rounds. The winner of each heat gets a point for his team, with the player that records the fastest time overall picking up an addition point.

New York Rangers forward Carl Hagelin had the fastest time in the event three years ago.

The breakaway challenge, meanwhile, aims to get the fans involved as it returns for its fifth showing. Five spots are divided up by the two captains, with a sixth player getting an automatic bid based on Twitter voting by the fans.

Players that were eligible for the spot include Johnny Gaudreau of the Calgary Flames, Claude Giroux of the Philadelphia Flyers and the Blue Jackets’ own Ryan Johansen.

After all eligible skaters complete three shot attempts — with style, creativity and flair encouraged — fans in attendance and watching on television will have a chance to return to Twitter and vote on a winner.

Washington’s Alex Ovechkin won the first three instances of this event, but pulled out of the All-Star Game in 2012 after getting suspended for three games following an illegal hit. Returning All-Star Patrick Kane of the Blackhawks ended up the winner, first donning a Superman cape along with thick Clark Kent glasses for a second shot in which he dove to the ice, threw the puck from the left side to the right with his hand and tapped it in with a stick.

On this third shot, he used a trick puck designed to explode into pieces when struck and ended up earning 49 percent of the fan vote.

An elder event that returns is the accuracy shooting, which follows a similar format to the fastest skater in that four players on each team go head-to-head over four rounds trying to hit all four corner targets in the fewest shots.

Dallas’ Jamie Benn earned an extra point for his team in 2012 by hitting all four targets in the fastest time at 10.204 seconds.

There are no individual honors up for grabs in the Skills Challenge Relay, a timed event that consists of five challenges: one timers, passing, puck control, stick-handling and goalie goals. Fourteen skaters and one goaltender from each team will participate, with a point going to the fastest team in each heat and the team with the fastest overall time getting a bonus point.

The shootout portion of the event gets a different look with all 48 players — 14 skaters and two netminders each session — participating over a three-round shootout.

Unlike the previous elimination format that went to a last-shooter standing, seven skaters per round have 10 seconds to take a shootout rule-abiding shot against a goaltender, with teams alternating after each shot. Every third puck is a bonus that is worth two points scored as opposed to the normal one.

Team Chara beat a squad captained by Daniel Alfredsson in 2012.

Categorized in: NHL