USA TODAY US Edition

NHL makes changes to skills competitio­n

Tech enhancemen­ts, $25,000 prize to winners

- Kevin Allen

As much as NHL officials like the four-division setup for their 3-on-3 AllStar Game format, they thought the four divisions added messiness to their AllStar Skills Competitio­n.

“Last year, admittedly, we felt it was a bit confusing for the home audience to follow along,” NHL executive vice president and chief content officer Steve Mayer told USA TODAY.

Mayer thinks the league has remedied that by changing the skills competitio­n from a team event to an individual event. Six events. Six champions. It will be a much cleaner look for the Saturday night event in Tampa (7 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network).

“We said, ‘How do we strip it down and decide who are the most skillful players?” Mayer said. “And when we looked at the events — we had always tested the hardest, the most accurate shot and the fastest skater. I think we are just simplifyin­g what we’ve been doing all of these years.”

The NHL is also awarding $25,000 to the winner of each event, an effort to further entice the athletes to win the individual titles.

“These guys are so competitiv­e that I don’t care if it had only been $25, these guys would want to win,” Mayer said. “We know that some of our players have specialtie­s and they have rivals within those specialtie­s. We hope a true competitio­n will come out. We think it will. At the end of the day, we think guys will want the honor of being the fastest skater, the most accurate shooter.”

Polling, according to Mayer, shows fans really like the hardest shot competitio­n the way NBA fans like the dunk contest.

“That seems to be the leading response,” Mayer said. “Fans like the hardest shot. They are fascinated by the numbers that have been put up over the years. I think fastest skater is another one they like.”

Boston Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara owns the hardest shot record of 108.8 mph, set in 2012. He won the competitio­n for five consecutiv­e seasons. But he isn’t an All-Star this season, nor is Montreal Canadiens defenseman Shea Weber, who won that contest the past three seasons.

Mayer said there has been a discussion of bringing in players just to compete in the skill competitio­n “eventually.” The NBA does that for its All-Star skills competitio­n.

But the NHL wanted to get the format right before adding extra players to mix.

The other significan­t change this season is improved technology in all the events. For example, the four Styrofoam targets in the shooting accuracy competitio­n have been replaced by LED lights.

Instead of shooting at any target, players now will see five targets and have to hit the target that lights up. “This is more difficult,” Mayer said.

Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby won this event last year and he returns to the game.

On Jan. 8, the NHL brought in players from the University of Tampa team to test the new setup and liked what they saw. NBC was also part of the test.

Mayer said the NHL did more testing for the skills competitio­n than ever before.

“The new targets are super cool,” Mayer said. “We have passing targets that are very visual. Guys will get a signal to which target they have to hit. In the puck relay, guys have to puck control through gates. The look will be real high end.”

 ??  ?? Defending shooting accuracy winner Sidney Crosby (87) will have five targets to take aim at but will have to hit the one that lights up. KELVIN KUO/USA TODAY SPORTS
Defending shooting accuracy winner Sidney Crosby (87) will have five targets to take aim at but will have to hit the one that lights up. KELVIN KUO/USA TODAY SPORTS

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