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

ST LOUIS, MISSOURI - JANUARY 24: Mark Scheifele #55 of the Winnipeg Jets, Tyler Bertuzzi #59 of the Detroit Red Wings, Nico Hischier #13 of the New Jersey Devils, Tomas Hertl #48 of the San Jose Sharks, Leon Draisaitl #29 of the Edmonton Oilers, Jonathan Huberdeau #11 of the Florida Panthers Jaccob Slavin #74 of the Carolina Hurricanes and Alex Pietrangelo #27 of the St. Louis Blues take part in the 2020 NHL All-Star Skills competition at Enterprise Center on January 24, 2020 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/NHLI via Getty Images)
ST LOUIS, MISSOURI - JANUARY 24: Mark Scheifele #55 of the Winnipeg Jets, Tyler Bertuzzi #59 of the Detroit Red Wings, Nico Hischier #13 of the New Jersey Devils, Tomas Hertl #48 of the San Jose Sharks, Leon Draisaitl #29 of the Edmonton Oilers, Jonathan Huberdeau #11 of the Florida Panthers Jaccob Slavin #74 of the Carolina Hurricanes and Alex Pietrangelo #27 of the St. Louis Blues take part in the 2020 NHL All-Star Skills competition at Enterprise Center on January 24, 2020 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/NHLI via Getty Images)
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ST LOUIS, MISSOURI – JANUARY 24: Mitch Marner #16 of the Toronto Maple Leafs takes part in the Gatorade NHL Shooting Stars event as part of the 2020 NHL All-Star Skills competition at Enterprise Center on January 24, 2020 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Brian Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images)
ST LOUIS, MISSOURI – JANUARY 24: Mitch Marner #16 of the Toronto Maple Leafs takes part in the Gatorade NHL Shooting Stars event as part of the 2020 NHL All-Star Skills competition at Enterprise Center on January 24, 2020 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Brian Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images)

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.