The revamped All-Star Skills Competition was largely a success on Friday night in Toronto.
Instead of the usual format, where every All-Star competed in at least one event, the NHL instead limited the Skills Competition to just 12 skaters, who all competed in multiple events. As an added incentive, a million-dollar prize was on the line.
Three of those 12 competitors were Vancouver Canucks. Elias Pettersson was named as one of the initial competitors, then Quinn Hughes and J.T. Miller won the fan vote to join him. One more Canuck, goaltender Thatcher Demko, took part in the One-on-One event.
The three Canucks finished sixth, seventh, and eleventh in the final standings, coming up short of the grand prize, but all three held their own and flashed the skills that got them to the All-Star Game.
Let’s go event by event for the results.
Fastest Skater
1 | Connor McDavid - 13.408 seconds
2 | Mathew Barzal - 13.519 seconds
3 | Quinn Hughes - 14.088 seconds
4 | Cale Makar - 14.089 seconds
5 | William Nylander - 14.164 seconds
To no one’s surprise, Connor McDavid won the Fastest Skater, though Mathew Barzal gave him a skate for his money.
Quinn Hughes held his own, even if he’s known more for his smoothness and maneuverability than straight-ahead speed. He barely edged out his defenceman rival, Cale Makar, by one-thousandth of a second to earn three points.
One-Timers
1 | Nathan MacKinnon - 23 points
2 | David Pastrnak - 22 points
3 | Leon Draisaitl - 22 points
4 | Elias Pettersson - 20 points
5 | Nikita Kucherov - 19 points
6 | J.T. Miller - 18 points
7 | Mathew Barzal - 17 points
8 | Auston Matthews - 15 points
The new One-Timers event saw Connor Bedard and Sidney Crosby take the ice to feed passes to the competitors, who had to hit sections of the net for points, with just under the bar worth the most: four points.
Pettersson snuck into the top four, finish just two points behind David Pastrnak and Leon Draisaitl. He looked very comfortable from the right faceoff circle, where Canucks fans have seen him score plenty of goals on the power play.
Miller wasn’t far behind. He was firing entirely at the four-point target under the bar, resulting in three crossbars — if even one of those three went in, it would have tied him for second in the event.
Miller, who had his daughter Scottlyn on the ice with him, seemed to be having a great time at his first All-Star Game and spoke to Kevin Bieksa briefly after the One-Timers event.
“That was sweet. After the first one, all the nerves went away,” said Miller. “I actually felt pretty good about the shots. I told the guys, I’m not going for the 2s, I’ve gotta give ‘er.”
When asked about getting passes from Crosby for the event, Miller had to grin.
“Yeah, it’s awesome. We got into it a bunch in Pittsburgh a couple weeks ago, so I told him to put everything aside,” said Miller. “I’ve been watching him since I was a kid, so it’s pretty awesome.”
Passing Challenge
1 | Elias Pettersson - 25 points
2 | Cale Makar - 23 points
3 | Mathew Barzal - 21 points
4 | Auston Matthews - 19 points
5 | William Nylander - 16 points
6 | Quinn Hughes - 15 points
7 | Nathan MacKinnon - 13 points
8 | Connor McDavid - 12 points
9 | Leon Draisaitl - 12 points
10 | J.T. Miller - 7 points
11 | Nikita Kucherov - 5 points
This was one of the toughest challenges of the night, with several players struggling significantly. The Passing Challenge required players to hit targets of varying sizes while skating the length of the ice as a minute-long timer counted down.
Pettersson, however, didn’t struggle at all, winning the event with deceptive ease. Needing to hit all three of his final targets to pass Makar for the win, Pettersson calmly went three-for-three on the smallest target.
Hughes mostly played it safe, aiming for the mid-sized targets worth two points, which may have cost him in the long run, but resulted in a respectable 15 points.
Miller, on the other hand, struggled. That’s a bit of a surprise considering he’s one of the best passers in the league, leading the NHL in primary assists. He’s evidently better at passing when there’s a bunch of players and sticks in the way.
This was also where Kucherov’s tough night started, as he missed target after target and visibly gave up, which earned him a few boos from the Toronto crowd.
Hardest Shot
1 | Cale Makar - 102.56 mph
2 | J.T. Miller - 102.34 mph
3 | Elias Pettersson - 98.40 mph
4 | Auston Matthews - 96.22 mph
5 | David Pastrnak - 95.27 mph
Just like the Fastest Skater event, only five players competed in the Hardest Shot. Both events seem like they have a high chance for potential embarrassment — no one wants to be revealed as a slow skater or to have a muffin of a shot — so that makes a little bit of sense since the players could choose their events.
Miller made up for his lacklustre showing in the Passing Challenge with a blistering slap shot to finish second in the Hardest Shot competition, barely behind the surprise winner, Cale Makar.
Pettersson won the event last year and said he had a side bet with Miller on the Hardest Shot event, a bet he lost. His 98.40 mph slap shot was still good enough for third in the event, however.
“Beat Petey in the hardest shot,” said Miller when asked his goal for the Skills Competition. “Made my night. That’s worth a million bucks to me.”
"It was just a one hundred dollar bill," said Pettersson. "He got it this time...I had over 103 last year, so he can brag about this but I still got the record if we're going to be picky."
Stick Handling
1 | Connor McDavid - 25.755 seconds
2 | Mathew Barzal - 26.929 seconds
3 | William Nylander - 27.272 seconds
4 | Nathan MacKinnon - 27.715 seconds
5 | Leon Draisaitl - 28.677 seconds
6 | Quinn Hughes - 29.038 seconds
7 | Elias Pettersson - 29.526 seconds
8 | David Pastrnak - 38.488 seconds
9 | Nikita Kucherov - 44.178 seconds
This was a difficult event, requiring players to quickly maneuver threw a series of stickhandling challenges, capped off by a toe-drag at the net.
Hughes had the extra challenge of being the first player to skate the course, giving everyone behind him the advantage of seeing a player go through it so they knew what to expect and the mark to beat.
While Hughes had a smooth run, his time of 29.038 seconds wasn’t enough to get him into the top five.
Honestly, Hughes should have finished higher in the standings, as pretty much every other competitor skated turned and skated forward in a section where they were required to skate backward. Even with a million-dollar prize on the line, the NHL played fast and loose with the rules
Pettersson might have bettered Hughes on his run and earned a top-five spot, but he lost an edge and wiped out. It was a costly error that dropped him significantly down the overall standings after he was in first place early in the event.
Meanwhile, Kucherov struggled again and leaned into it, slaloming in a carefree way after losing control early and cheerily waving to the booing crowd. It was great.
“That’s okay,” said Matthews of Kucherov’s 0.5 points in the Skills Competition. “When you’re leading the league in scoring you get a pass. You can do what you want.”
Accuracy Shooting
1 | Connor McDavid - 9.158 seconds
2 | Auston Matthews - 9.341 seconds
3 | J.T. Miller - 13.587 seconds
4 | William Nylander - 14.099 seconds
5 | Quinn Hughes - 14.815 seconds
6 | Nathan MacKinnon - 15.958 seconds
7 | Nikita Kucheov - 16.46 seconds
8 | Cale Makar - 19.069 seconds
9 | David Pastrnak - 19.67 seconds
10 | Leon Draisaitl - 46.089 seconds
Miller had a great showing in the Accuracy Shooting competition, which was the traditional format with foam targets. Miller went 4-for-7 with a couple of posts prolonging his time, but still finished in a respectable 13.587 seconds for third place. He needed the result, as it moved him into the top eight to qualify for the next round.
Hughes actually hit his four targets in fewer shots than Miller, going 4-for-6, but took a second longer than Miller and finished in fifth.
Regrettably, that wasn’t enough to get Hughes into the top eight and he was eliminated with four points in 11th place.
At least he finished ahead of Kucherov, who was humming to start the Accuracy Shooting contest, going three-for-three to kick things off until he was told that the whistle hadn’t gone yet and he wasn’t supposed to start. It was a fitting end to Kucherov’s night.
One-on-One
1 | William Nylander vs. Cam Talbot - 9 points
2 | Auston Matthew vs. Thatcher Demko - 7 points
3 | J.T Miller vs. Jeremy Swayman - 6 points
4 | Mathew Barzal vs. Igor Shesterkin - 6 points
5 | Cale Maker vs. Connor Hellebuyck - 4 points
6 | Elias Pettersson vs. Jake Oettinger - 3 points
7 | Connor McDavid vs. Alexandar Georgiev - 3 points
8 | Nathan MacKinnon vs. Sergei Bobrovsky - 2 points
The One-on-One event was simple enough: players were given a minute to score as many goals as possible on a goaltender of their choosing. The final pucks were worth double the points but came when the skaters were tired from the fast pace.
Miller picked Jeremy Swayman of the Boston Bruins, saying, “I can’t score on any of the other guys on breakaways.” He finished third with six points, scoring on a few nifty moves.
“I’m gassed right now,” said Miller after. “My legs are fried.”
Pettersson had less luck against Jake Oettinger, who he picked because, “We were at dinner last night and had a little friendly chirp.”
Unfortunately, the chirping is likely to continue, as Pettersson was only able to get two pucks past Oettinger, one of them worth double points.
The end result was that Miller and Pettersson were tied in points for sixth place, with only six players moving on to the final event. The tiebreaker was their performance in the One-on-One event, so Miller moved on and Pettersson was eliminated.
The one part of the One-on-One event that had Canucks fans cringing, however, was when Thatcher Demko went up again Auston Matthews. Despite coming in cold, Demko went all out, stretching into complete splits multiple times. As Canucks fans prayed he wouldn’t injure himself, Matthews still scored multiple times to finish second in the event.
Demko cheered up Canucks fans, albeit inadvertently, when he accidentally snubbed a potential hug from Swayman before heading out onto the ice. He clearly had true tunnel vision and missed the friendly offer from his fellow goaltender.
Canucks fans still are not fans of the Bruins, so they didn’t mind the unintentional diss by Demko.
Obstacle Course
1 | Connor McDavid - 40.606 seconds
2 | Cale Makar - 43.435 seconds
3 | Auston Matthews - 47.271 seconds
4 | William Nylander - 49.065 seconds
5 | J.T Miller - 49.351 seconds
6 | Matthew Barzal - 1:16
The final event of the evening was an Obstacle Course that combined several skills: speed, stickhandling, passing, and shooting, sort of. With the point totals doubled for the final event, there was still a chance for Miller to win.
It didn’t quite go that way. Miller, with the lowest point total heading into the event, had to go first, which was a disadvantage. Still, he performed admirably, setting a decently high bar for his fellow competitors.
Unfortunately, Miller’s performance landed him in fifth in the event, ahead of only Mathew Barzal, who got a case of the yips in the saucer pass section of the course. He took so many attempts that he ran out of pucks and they had to bring him more.
Connor McDavid, who was one of the people behind the revamped event, won the whole thing after finishing ahead of Makar in the Obstacle Course. Sure, that seems a little bit sketchy — did McDavid just scam the NHL out of a million dollars? — but he deserved it, with strong performances throughout.
Final Results
1 | Connor McDavid - 25 points
2 | Cale Makar - 20 points
3 | Auston Matthews - 18 points
4 | William Nylander - 16 points
5 | Mathew Barzal - 13.5 points
6 | J.T. Miller - 12 points
7 | Elias Pettersson - 10 points
8 | Nathan MacKinnon - 7 points
9 | David Pastrnak - 4.5 points
10 | Leon Draisaitl - 4.5 points
11 | Quinn Hughes - 4 points
12 | Nikita Kucherov - 0.5 points
"I had a really fun time, just being able to watch the amount of talent these guys have," said Miller. "Obviously, I get to play against them all the time, but to see it like that firsthand was really special for me...I just feel super lucky and humble to be part of an event like that."
When asked about what he'll remember most, Miller didn't hesitate.
"My daughter being able to do the warm-up with the guys," said Miller. "That is something she won't understand until she's older. I brought her out for the little ten-minute warm-up and I'm looking Matthews and McDavid and MacKinnon flying around past her and shooting the puck past her head into the net and I'm like, 'You have no idea how cool this is.' I had to pinch myself there."
