Sarah Nurse, Sergei Ovechkin steal show at 2023 NHL All-Star Skills Competition

Scott Maxwell
Scott Maxwell
Sarah Nurse, Sergei Ovechkin steal show at 2023 NHL All-Star Skills Competition
Credit: © Jasen Vinlove

The 2023 NHL All-Star Weekend in Florida is underway, and we had our fair share of highlights in this year’s Skills Competition on Friday night. The biggest came from players outside of the NHL, but we also got a good look of the Florida beaches and golf courses with some interesting new events this year.

Breakaway Challenge

Integrated throughout the night was the Breakaway Challenge, where players take a breakaway attempt while adding a bit of flair and performance to it. Some highlights from past events include Brent Burns skating out in a Chewbacca mask, P.K. Subban dressed up as Jaromir Jagr, and Trevor Zegras scoring on a one-handed spin wrist shot while blindfolded and dodging balls. It has it’s highlights, but it can be a very hit-or-miss event.

We got a bit more of the latter this year. Mitch Marner did a (poorly-produced) Miami Vice sketch, only to take a weak shot. David Pastrnak went the route of Happy Gilmore, a solid nod to the fictional Boston Bruins fan, although it was still awkward. Matthew Tkachuk had a beach theme with his turn, but the sketch went on a bit too long before he even took the shot.

The funniest, or should I say most adorable, attempt was done by Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin. They also drew out the sketch a bit too long, but it paid off with Ovechkin’s son Sergei finishing off the 3-on-0 with the two legends, and it got them the top score of the event.

Tendy Tandem

This was one of the new events to the skills competition, and a lot of people were left confused by how it worked, so it wasn’t the greatest start. The eight goalie representatives teamed up based on divisions, with one firing the puck down the ice to both get points (if the puck hit the net) as well as determine how many skaters would take the attempt (from a breakaway to a 3-on-0) based on what they hit, while the other was making the saves in net and getting points based on how many players were shooting on them (with the other team’s goalie firing at the net on the other side of the ice at this point).

Make sense?

Well, Connor Hellebuyck and Juuse Saros of the Central Division took the crown in this event, but they weren’t the highlight. The NHL also invited women’s hockey players Alex Carpenter, Hilary Knight, Emily Clark, Rebecca Johnston, and Sarah Nurse to participate in this event, and it was Nurse who stole the show, scoring the lone breakaway goal on Hellebuyck with the Forsberg deke, and a cheeky celebration to cap it off.

Fastest Skater

The fastest skater is one that never leaves the rotation, and this year’s certainly had its fair share of surprises. Going in to the event, you would have expected Dylan Larkin and Cale Makar to challenge for the win, and maybe even compete in the finals. But they put up the two worst times, with Makar wiping out at the last turn, and Larkin being the slowest of the remaining four.

Instead, it was Andrei Svechnikov and Kevin Fiala competing in the finals, with the Carolina Hurricanes forward taking it by almost half a second with a 13.699 time.

Splash Shot

Splash Shot was another new addition to the skills competition, which took on a Florida theme and hit the beach. Two teams faced off against each other, with one player firing pucks at six surfboards before finishing it off by hitting an NHL logo that sent one of the opposing team’s players into a dunk tank, and then vice versa to see who could do the job sooner.

In the semifinals, New York Rangers teammates Adam Fox and Igor Shesterkin bested Matthew and Brady Tkachuk, while Colorado Avalanche teammates Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar beat the Cole Harbour duo of Sidney Crosby and fellow Avs teammate Nathan MacKinnon. If a Rangers vs. Avs final is a preview of this year’s Stanley Cup Finals, then it’s a repeat for Colorado, as Rantanen and Makar took it for the win.

Pitch ‘N Puck

Out of all the new additions to this year’s skills competition, this may have been the most interesting, as Pitch ‘N Puck blended hockey with golf. Johnny Gaudreau, Clayton Keller, Jason Robertson, and Nick Suzuki took turns moving a puck up the course, and then were kindly given a golf ball to finish the job on the green.

It should be no surprise that the players were good at it considering that golfing is a frequent offseason pastime for most players, and even less surprising that the player on the NHL’s worst team last season in Suzuki took the extra golf time in the offseason to his advantage, and not only won the event, but scored a birdie.

Accuracy Shooting

Accuracy Shooting is another timeless tradition at the Skills Competition, although it took on a new form with the addition of a semifinal and finals. Nazem Kadri, Connor McDavid, Brock Nelson, and Artemi Panarin moved on from the first round, although the most interesting moments were the struggles of Leon Draisaitl and Jack Hughes, going cold for stretches with Draisaitl trying a few tricks to break his slump.

But the biggest story may have been the semifinal matchup between McDavid and Kadri. McDavid was money in the competition, going 4-for-4 in the first round, and he did the exact same in the second round. But, there was one issue. McDavid got caught hotdogging the final shot, giving Kadri enough time to get all his targets done first, and winning the matchup. Kadri would go on to lose to Nelson in the finals, who completed it in 12.419 seconds.

Hardest Shot

The Hardest Shot is always an intriguing event, particularly to see if any players can top Zdeno Chara’s record of 108.8 miles per hour. That didn’t happen this year, but interestingly enough, it was not one of the three defensemen in the competition who took the victory, or even Alex Ovechkin. In fact, it was Elias Pettersson winning the event with a shot of 103.2 miles per hour.

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