ST. LOUIS, MO – A good business must constantly keep things fresh. If you want to grow, you must find clever ways to keep your audience engaged. The NHL did just that at the 2020 NHL Friday Night and All-Star Skills Competition at the Enterprise Center in St Louis, Missouri.
Ryan O’Reilly
As recent as 2015 when the mid-season classic featured a traditional skills competition and a draft to fill rosters enabling Team Toews to defeat Team Foligno 17-12, the NHL knew almost immediately at the conclusion of the weekend, it had to revamp things. The event lacked energy and the presentation of the skills and game competition grew stale. Hockey fans demanded something different.
That next year, the NHL put on a 3-on-3, tournament-style competition in Nashville. The winning team shared $1,000,000 and it delivered a more interesting show It was a better effort designed to keep fans engaged. It did just that.
Fast-forward to 2020 and this year’s version included two major changes to Friday night’s events; a battle between Canada and the United States in the Elite Women’s 3-on-3 event and the Shooting Stars contest which featured a blend of Top Golf-style scoring with NHL skill. This event was undoubtedly influenced by Carolina Hurricanes owner Thomas Dundon, the largest shareholder of Top Golf.
The five events were riveting entertainment which celebrated the skill of these exceptional athletes while allowing for the lighter side of the sport to show through.
Bridgestone NHL Fastest Skater™
Before the new events, the night began with the Bridgestone NHL Fastest Skater™ where eight players competed for the top spot. Each skater had the choice of skating clockwise or counterclockwise.
Chris Kreider of the New York Rangers was the first skater and chose the counterclockwise direction registering a quick time of 13.50 seconds, despite veering a little wider that he would have liked, but still a respectable result. Colorado’s Nathan McKinnon was next, choosing to skate clockwise. He seemed to slow his place between turns 3 and 4, finishing with a time of 13.895.
Vancouver’s Quinn Hughes was next, choosing to skate counterclockwise. He had a poor jump extending his time to 14.263 time, good for 3rd among the first three skaters. Darkhorse Anthony Duclair of the Ottawa Senators skated the same direction, started strong, but seemed to lose most of the speed he generated near turn 4. It was still fast enough to creep ahead of the Hughes.
Philadelphia Flyer speedster Travis Konecny was next. He started strong but appeared to lose speed around turn 3 finishing with a 14.113 time. Speedy Jack Eichel of Buffalo switched to clockwise and really had good strides throughout, finishing with a 13.54 and nearly knocking Kreider off his perch.
New York Islanders forward Mathew Barzal was next, skating clockwise and getting a great jump. Despite veering a little too wide coming out of turn 2, he made up for it the rest of the way to finish with a 13.175 time and the top spot, just .155 off the record set by the final participant, Connor McDavid, in 2017.
The Edmonton Oiler phenom chose to skate counterclockwise and really hit his stride out of turn 2 and was a serious challenge to Barzal but fell short with a time of 13.215.
Bud Light NHL Save Streak™
The next event was the Bud Light NHL Save Streak where the goalies took center stage. The objective here was to string together the most saves in a row under shootout conditions.
Vancouver’s Jakob Markstrom kicked things off facing the Central Division stopping 5 consecutive saves. Pittsburgh’s Tristan Jarry faced the Atlantic Division shooters finishing with a streak of 4 saves in a row.
Next was Toronto’s Frederik Anderson faced the Metropolitan Division snipers. The Toronto goalie overtook his competitors by saving 7 consecutive shots. Connor Hellebuyck then faced the Pacific shooters and mustered up a streak of 4. Calgary’s David Rittich was next and wasn’t able to extend a streak beyond 4 saves.
Washington’s Braden Holtby faced the Atlantic shooters and a wide variety of attempts, never getting beyond making 5 stops consecutively. Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy was next and overtook the field with 9 straight saves to become the leader.
Last up was hometown hero Jordan Binnington. After two saves on Calgary’s Mark Giordano and Los Angeles’ Anze Kopitar, Calgary’s Matt Tkachuk scored, resetting the count. Binnington then rattled off 10 straight saves to win the event.
Honda NHL Accuracy Shooting™
This event was designed for players to shoot from 25 feet out of the goal and strike five targets in the shortest amount of time. The targets were personalized for each player to include nicknames, their uniform number, team the represent, and number of All-Star appearances.
Mark Scheifle of the Winnipeg Jets led things off and hit all five of his targets in 15.160 seconds. Detroit’s Tyler Bertuzzi bested that mark by hitting all targets in 13.868 seconds. New Jersey’s Nico Hischier struggled in the event nearly taking 20 seconds before retiring all five targets. San Jose’s Tomas Hertl seemed to be on the fast trick to winning until it took him 12 seconds to hit the final target. He ended the event at 17.161 seconds.
The last four competitors made it interesting. Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl roared through the exercise hitting all five targets on six shots in just 10.257 seconds. Florida’s Jonathan Huberdeau appeared to threaten that mark, but he ended the event in 13.704 seconds. Carolina’s Jacob Slavin needed just six shots and 9.505 seconds to take the lead in the event.
As St. Louis’ Alex Pietrangelo’s targets appeared, the #24 showed up in the lower right corner target. It led fans to wonder why, but it didn’t take long for Blues Hall of Famer Bernie Federko, who wore #24, to appear on the ice in skates. The former Blues captain fed the current Blues captain pucks to fire at the targets. Pietrangelo then reset things and took 13.63 seconds to hit all five targets, allowing Slavin to win the event.
Enterprise NHL Hardest Shot™
After resurfacing the ice and enjoying the 3-on-3 women’s game, the hardest shot event was next in which six players competed with two shots each.
Tomas Hertl wore a Justin Beeber mask.
Columbus’ Seth Jones started things off with 98.8 mph following up with a just slightly lesser effort at 96.2. Calgary’s Mark Giordano broke the century mark with 100.8 before following that effort by hitting 102.1. Tampa Bay’s Victor Hedman started with a 97.3 before turning it on a little more and hitting 102.1.
Vancouver’s Elias Pettersson was next, overtaking Giordano and Hedman with the first shot, hitting 102.4, before backing off a bit and reaching 100.3. Washington’s John Carlson match Pettersson’s first shot and then laid into the second one a little more by reaching 104.5.
The last participant in the event, Montreal’s Shea Weber, had won the event previously in 2015, 2016 and 2017. In this year’s event, he registered 105.9 with his first show and following it u with 106.5 in his second attempt to win the event.
Gatorade NHL Shooting Stars™
To finish the events for the night, then players were selected to participate in the NHL’s newest skill event. Participants now where in street clothes with their jerseys on and were introduced to the crowd as they walked from the ice level up the stairs through the fan sections to reach the performance platform.
One at a time, they shot six orange pucks from a stationary position to the target field positioned on the ice. Officials raised flags with point amounts earned to signify scoring.
St. Louis’ David Perron was first scoring 14 total points in what was a remarkable start to a unique event. Toronto’s Mitch Marner was next, registering 22 points including two shots which hit the 10-point Gateway Arch target positioned at center ice. Canada’s Mari Philip-Poulin represented the Women’s Elite All-Stars and scored 15 points.
Matthew Tkachuk of the Calgary Flames and his younger brother Brady Tkachuk were joined by their father Keith before their participation in the event. As Matthew approached the platform, he shed his Calgary jersey to reveal a St. Louis Cardinals Yadier Molina jersey to the delight of fans. He ended up hitting the Arch target twice to finish with 20 points. Brady Tkachuk didn’t have as good a result scoring just 6 points.
To the cascade of boos, Chicago’s Patrick Kane challenged the leader, tying Marner with 22 points. Dallas Tyler Seguin started strong but could only muster 14 points. Hilary Knight of the Women’s Elite All-Stars struggled and only wound up with 10 points. Boston’s David Pastrnak also had trouble, barely hitting double-digits with 10 points.
The final contestant was Ryan O’Reilly of the Blues. He started strong and found help from Hall of Famer Brett Hull, who appeared to nearly fall off the platform. O’Reilly’s 20 points coupled with a generous 2 points awarded from Hull’s effort tied Marner and Kane and led to a sudden-death, single-shot tie breaker.
Marner’s effort landed behind the Arch target while Kane reached a 2-point target. O’Reilly failed to register a point and the inaugural Shooting Stars crown went to Kane.
The NHL showed once again its willingness to test the limits, do something different and listen to their fans. Evidence of this was seen in many places Friday night in St. Louis. Expect to see more of this new NHL on Saturday night at the All Star Game.
Skill report by dennis.morrell@prohockeynews.com and you can follow him on Twitter t @DMMORRELL
You must be logged in to post a comment.