The Washington Capitals will be well-represented during All-Star weekend and during the Skills Competition. (Getty)
This is going to be fun.
The NHL All-Star weekend is in full swing and that means that it’s time for the annual skills competition, an event, we’d argue, is even more fun to watch than the actual game.
So, what do we have in store?
Team captains Alex Ovvechkin, Jarmor Jagr, John Scott and Patrick Kane will select their teams from the 40 remaining skaters and they’ll compete in half a dozen on-ice events. It’s fun. It’s filled with trash talk and it’s perfect primetime TV viewing. Here’s everything you need to know about the event:
Date: Saturday, January 30, 2016
Time: 7 p.m. ET
Location: Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, Tennessee
TV Channel: NBCSN
Live Stream: NBC Sports Live Extra
Preview: Alright, here we go. So, as mentioned before, the four captains from each division will select their teams from the remaining All-Stars and then it’s time for our favorite NHL’ers to, basically, show off.
There are six different events on the night with different point values for various victories. Here’s the breakdown from all of them.
NHL Fastest Skater: Four players from each team race against an opponent in a two-skater race. This is usually the warm-up act for everyone and offers a good chance for some of the more veteran guys to get in.
Honda NHL Breakaway Challenge: Fairly self-explanatory, a player races towards the net, shows off in the best way possible and tries to score.
NHL Accuracy Shooting: Four shooters from each team will participate with one shooter trying to hit four different 15-inch targets in the corners of the net.
Skills Challenge Relay: Fourteen skaters, two goalies and four relays with five challenges each. Come for the impressive stick handling, stay for goalies trying to fire pucks into tiny nets.
Hardest Shot: Hit the puck as hard as you can. That’s it.
NHL Shootout: Eighteen skaters and three goaltenders will participate in a three-round shootout, with each round lasting ten-minutes.