The NHL put on a show Friday night, as the Skills Competition took over the city of Las Vegas during the NHL All-Star Weekend.
The event, which is held annually (usually in January, but held in February this year due to the Olympic Games) but notably not held last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, took place on the night prior to the All-Star Game, also held at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Returning from the 2020 Skills Competition were unique ice hockey challenges such as Fastest Skater, Hardest Shot, and Accuracy Shooting. St. Louis Blues star Jordan Kyrou won the Fastest Skater competition with a score of 13.55 seconds, beating out the favorited Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers in an upset.
“That’s really the defining aspect of why Jordy is so damn good,” Blues skating coach John Standbrook said of Kyrou. “Think of a car, all right. You’ve got two VWs on the line, and they’re both going to come across the line at the same time. [That’s] Jordy.”
Victor Hedman of the Tampa Bay Lightning performed the hardest slapshot, with a top speed of 103.2 mph. Meanwhile, Sebastian Aho of the Carolina Hurricanes won the competition for Accuracy Shooting, with a score of 10.937 seconds.
The Skills Competition took full advantage of its Vegas setting, further cementing Las Vegas as a 21st-century hockey town. In addition to the standard ice hockey challenges, two new unique challenges were created to add a bit of Vegas flair into the competition: the Fountain Face-Off and the NHL 21 in ’22 Challenge.
The Fountain Face-Off featured a lavish display in front of the famous Fountains of Bellagio, where players stood on floating circles of ice in the middle of the fountain and attempted to shoot pucks at five floating targets. In the final round, Zack Werenski of the Columbus Blue Jackets hit all five targets in a time of 25.634 seconds, beating out Nashville Predators defenseman Roman Josi and winning the contest.
“I’ve been to Vegas a few times and I feel like every time you come here you walk by them, you watch the fountains go off,” Werenski said of the event. “Just being out there, seeing the fountains up close, seeing the event they put on and just taking it all in. It was pretty unbelievable.”
The NHL 21 in ’22 event was held on the Las Vegas Strip, and involved players playing a game of Blackjack. But rather than sitting at a table with a dealer, the players shot hockey pucks at oversized playing cards 35 feet away, attempting to hit the correct cards. Forward Joe Pavelski of the Dallas Stars won the contest by getting a queen of clubs, beating out Tampa Bay Lighting player Steven Stamkos and his four of clubs.
The 2022 NHL Skills Competition was an event to remember, and coupled with the All-Star Game the following night, the NHL truly put on a show in Vegas.
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