TAMPA, FL – As Zac Brown would say, The southern wind has sung again another lullabye, bringing a close to a remarkably beautiful first day of the NHL All Star weekend. Even now as the Skills Competition is letting out just before 10 pm Eastern, revelers on yachts in the canal adjacent to Amalie Arena are still dancing in bathing suits in the balmy night breeze.
It was a night of interesting firsts and surprises. The most profound change in this year’s competition was that players competed individually for a $25,000 purse in the 6 events showcased.
With Connor McDavid being the shoo-in to retain his fastest skater status, it was a shot of hometown adrenaline when the Lightning’s Braden Point put up an early 13.579 that remained the high bar to beat until Connor posted a 13.454 late effort to earn the first ever repeat title in the event.
Blues’ defender Alex Pietrangelo ran away with the passing challenge, leaving some impressive competition in the dust with a time of 46.6, a full 8 seconds ahead of runner-up Eric Staal of the Minnesota Wild.
Other winners included Canucks’ Brock Boeser in accuracy shooting, Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin in hardest shot, and Vegas netminder Marc-Andre Fleury with 14 stops to edge out the Predators’ Pekka Rinne in the new Save Streak competition. P.K. Subban comically threw a glove at Rangers’ Henrick Lundqvist in a vain effort to distract him; perhaps it would have worked on Fleury. We’ll never know.
And if Braden Point couldn’t set an unbeatable bar for the night, Flames’ Johnny Gaudreau certainly did with his first round effort by posting an unreachable 24.65 in the new puck control relay. Connor McDavid looked like he had a shot at it, but a dropped puck at the high slot knocked him out of contention. He still managed to post a third best 29.22.
More to come as we pick up the action again this afternoon with the Red Carpet Event and the All Star Game.
Photos by PHN photographer Brianna.OMara@prohockeynews.com
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