McDavid wins fastest skater again
TAMPA, Florida — Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid became the first player to be the fastest skater winner in back-to back years on Saturday at the NHL All-Star game skills competition.
Calgary Flames winger Johnny Gaudreau topped the puck control relay and Brock Boeser of the Vancouver Canucks took the accuracy shooting competition.
Alex Ovechkin won the hardest shot title with a drive of 101.3 miles per hour.
The Washington star was the only player to the break the century mark, coming on his second and final try. Ovechkin’s first attempt went 98.8 mph.
Others in the hardest shot event were P.K. Subban (Nashville), Steven Stamkos (Tampa Bay), Brent Burns (San Jose) and John Klingberg (Dallas). Alex Pietrangelo (St. Louis) claimed the passing challenge.
In a new event, Marc-Andre Fleury put together 14 consecutive stops on breakaways to capture the save streak.
Subban threw his glove just wide of the post as he skated toward Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist, but failed to score on his breakaway. Philadelphia’s Claude Giroux broke his stick on a slap shot that ended Nashville goalie Pekka Rinne’s secondplace run of 13 in a row.
The NHL revamped the skills competition this year, placing the emphasis on the individual players instead of a team competition. The winner of each event receives $25,000.
One of the noticeable changes came in accuracy shooting where the Styrofoam targets were replaced with LED targets located in the net.
The targets lit up randomly and the shooter, standing 25 feet from the goal line, had three seconds to hit the target that was lit.
Boeser shattered one of the lights, which briefly delayed the competition as the light was replaced.