Vegas Golden Knights: Main Takeaways from All-Star Skills Comp

1. The King Returns

My favorite event in the NHL All-Star Skills Competition has always been the Hardest Shot, I’ll admit that now.

I mean, who doesn’t enjoy seeing players give it their absolute all to hammer the puck as hard as possible?!

And, for me, one of the best sights in all of hockey is whenever Shea Weber winds up to unleash one of his trademark one-timers.

The Montreal Canadiens defenseman has been a staple of the Hardest Shot competition and, after an absence, the veteran was back this year.

Praise the lord.

Weber’s mere presence made the event more entertaining and he didn’t disappoint.

Going up against defending champion John Carlson, Weber unleashed an absolute bomb and he won the event for the third time in his career after his shot came in at 106.5 miles per hour.

If I didn’t before, then I certainly adopted a newfound appreciation for all those bodies that have been on the receiving end of one of Weber’s bombs.

Rather them than me.

It was a triumphant return to the All-Star Game for Shea Weber and the Hardest Shot event is just that much better when Weber is involved.

2. New Speedster in Town

Let’s be honest from the outset, I think most of us were expecting Connor McDavid to breeze the Bridgestone NHL Fastest Skater competition on Friday.

After all, the generational talent had won the event in each of the last three years, and the stage was set for the Edmonton Oilers star to reclaim his crown.

However, the field this year featured a host of young studs who can all boast an incredible amount of speed.

And, as it transpired, McDavid was beat out by another elite young star in New York Islanders forward Mathew Barzal, who dominated this event.

Barzal put on an absolute clinic with a time of 13.175 seconds, while McDavid came a close second with a time of 13.215.

New York Rangers forward Chris Kreider, who was appearing in his first All-Star Game, impressed too and came third with a superb time of 13.509, making this the most competitive Fastest Skater event for a while.

3. New Faces, No Problem

Much was made of some of the game’s heavyweights in the ilk of Alex Ovechkin and the Vegas Golden Knights’ very own Marc-Andre Fleury opting to sit out the festivities in St. Louis.

With Sidney Crosby also not in attendance this weekend, some worried that the lack of household names at the 2020 NHL All-Star Game would hurt the event.

However, fear not.

Because, at the end of the day, we live in a different NHL now where young studs rule the day and having a plethora of new faces actually sparked new interest into the festivities, in my opinion at least.

From the likes of Vancouver Canucks rookie Quinn Hughes and Philadelphia Flyers forward Travis Konecny taking part in the Fastest Skater event, to Tomas Hertl trolling fellow All-Star Game newcomer Jordan Binnington in hilarious fashion during the Bud Light NHL Save Streak, it was refreshing to see so many fresh faces on show.

After all, we all moan that the NHL doesn’t get enough national attention, and it is only good for the sport to see players get their due and a share of the spotlight.

So, although you can never get enough Crosby or Ovechkin, it was kinda cool to see the likes of Tyler Bertuzzi, Jonathan Huberdeau and Anthony Duclair get their moment on the big stage.

4. NHL Hits Home Run

As already mentioned, in order to spark some fresh interest in this year’s All-Star Game, the National Hockey League decided to introduce the Elite Women’s 3-on-3 event, presented by Adidas.

Presenting the best America has to offer against the best Canada has to offer, the 3-on-3 game allowed the likes of Hilary Knight, Amanda Kessel and Natalie Spooner to showcase their talents on the big stage.

And it was superb.

This was such a cool event to watch and both teams absolutely gave it their all, with Team Canada emerging as 2-1 victors thanks to goals from Rebecca Johnston and Melodie Daoust, while Knight replied for Team America.

The women’s game needs more attention so for the elite to get the chance to strut their stuff at the All-Star Game was just brilliant, and it was arguably the highlight of the entire night.

It was also pretty cool to see various members of both teams take part in the Skills Competition, and hopefully this 3-on-3 game becomes a staple of the All-Star Game going forward.

Credit to everyone who made this happen.

5. Wrinkles to be ironed out

One of the new events added to the 2020 NHL All-Star Game was the Gatorade NHL Shooting Stars, which also generated the most intrigue.

The premise being that select players stand on an elevated platform about 30 feet above the ice surface, before shooting seven pucks at a variety of targets on the ice with each target ranging in point values.

Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane won the event after beating out Ryan O’Reilly and Mitch Marner in a one-shot tiebreaker.

However, there seemed to be some confusion at points during the event and it didn’t translate as an easy watch on the TV.

Granted, this event certainly has potential but it was clear that some players didn’t quite know what they had to do at times.

There were some cool moments, of course, including Calgary Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk revealing a neat Yadier Molina Cardinals jersey, while Matthew’s famous dad, Keith even joined his sons Matthew and Brady, to take a shot which was pretty neat.

But there are some wrinkles that need to be ironed out if the Shooting Stars event is to become a true staple of the NHL All-Star Game going forward.

There is potential there, but there’s also some work to be done.