The Tartan

By Haley Williams

You guys didn’t think you’d escape my hockey content just because the Penguins had a bye week, did you? The NHL All-Star Weekend is one of my favorite events of the year, and this one saw some really big changes from what we saw last year. First and foremost, the teams weren’t split by division — instead, the league picked four captains, who each drafted their team from a selection of players chosen by either the league or the fans. The skills tournament also saw some big changes, with only 12 out of the 44 players competing. However, the more important change is that they’re competing for a huge cash prize of $1 million. Cash on the line made most of the players take the tournament much more seriously, and really raised the stakes. Finally, the four teams faced off tournament style in two semi-final games and a final to determine the All-Star team which would split another million dollars between them.

On Thursday, the captains gathered in Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena and drafted their teams. The four captains chosen by the league were Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers, Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche, and Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Canucks. Each captain was also joined by a celebrity coach: Matthews was joined by pop singer Justin Beiber, McDavid was joined by actor Will Arnett, MacKinnon had dancer and musician Tate McRae, and Hughes got singer and songwriter Michael Bublé. Despite the announcers repeatedly calling the draft popular with the fans, I was not that entertained by it. It lasted a really long time, the picks were slow, and there wasn’t much showmanship going on. It’s just not the type of action I’d associate with All-Star Weekend. The one notable part of the draft for me was the strange behavior of Bublé. He was a little off-kilter, tripping over some of his words, and really sassing the announcer in a way that was a little weird. Bublé later revealed that this was because he was on psychedelic mushrooms, which had been given to him by a friend who told him that it was a microdose. Bublé later came to the conclusion that his friend was lying, and “thought [he] was in ‘Blades of Glory’ for most of the time that [he] was out there.” It was funny, but the rest of the draft was boring. If they choose to keep it for next year, I’d like to see more excitement.

On Friday we got the Skills Tournament, which is my favorite part of the weekend. The dozen players who were chosen to compete started out by choosing four of the first six events to participate in, with the top five players in each event earning points. The top eight players after the first six events would move on to compete in the seventh event, and the top six from that moved on to the eighth and final event. The first round started off with the Fastest Skater competition, with Hughes, McDavid, William Nylander (Toronto Maple Leafs), Cale Makar (Colorado Avalanche), and Mathew Barzal (New York Islanders) in the running. McDavid took first with an impressive time of just 13.408 seconds to take a lap around the rink. He was followed by Barzal, Hughes, and Makar, with Nylander taking last place. 

In the Hardest Shot contest, Matthews, Makar, David Pastrnak (Boston Bruins), J.T. Miller (Vancouver Canucks), and Elias Pettersson (Vancouver Canucks) competed to see who could send the puck the fastest into the net. Each player got two attempts, with the faster of the two being taken. Makar took first with a whopping 102.56 miles per hour, followed by Miller, Pettersson, Mattews, and Pastrnak bringing up the rear with a disappointing 95.27 miles per hour. The Passing Challenge came next. This event seemed to confuse every single player who competed in it, with the action frequently stopping so that officials could explain what was going on to the players. In their defense, I was also confused by how this was supposed to work. Something along the lines of skating down the length of the rink, trying to hit targets, then making a lap back, trying to hit more targets… and also the whole thing was timed. Everyone but Pastrnak competed in this challenge. Pettersson took first with a whopping 25 points, and Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Lightning came last with an extremely lackluster five points. His performance was frankly disappointing. It looked like he wasn’t trying at all, and it was obvious enough that fans in the arena started booing him partway through his run. He deserved it. 

In the One-Timers contest, competitors made nine shots from three different positions on the ice, with the pucks being passed to them by Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh Penguins) if they were a lefty and Connor Bedard (Chicago Blackhawks) if they were a righty. It was nice to see Bedard involved in the contest — he was meant to play this weekend, but a broken jaw unfortunately kept him off of the ice. Here, points were awarded based on where in the net the puck went: two points for center, three for the corners, and four for a thin strip right at the top. MacKinnon took first in this event with 23 points, and Matthews came in last with just 15. 

In the Stick Handling contest, players were made to maneuver the puck through an assortment of cones and other obstacles as fast as possible. McDavid once again came first with an astounding 25.755 seconds, and Kucherov was once again booed off the ice after putting up another disappointing performance of 44.178 seconds, earning him another last place. 

The final event of the first round was the Accuracy Shooting competition, in which players had to hit four targets, one in each corner of the net, as fast as possible. Connor McDavid took his fourth first place at just 9.158 seconds, and Nikita Kucherov finally managed to get a place other than last. Leon Drasaitl of the Edmonton Oilers ended with a cringe-worthy 46.089 seconds. After the first six, Drasaitl, Pastrnak, Hughes, and Kucherov did not advance. Kucherov had only half of a point. 

Next came the One-on-One, which saw players picking a goalie to call out and shoot against, aiming to get as many points as possible in 60 seconds. Additionally, the goalie who made the most saves won their own cash prize of $100,000. Nylander scored the most goals, ending up with nine points, and Alexander Georgiev of the Colorado Avalanche taking home the $100,000 for making nine saves against McDavid. Pettersson and MacKinnon were eliminated after this round, with 10 and seven points respectively. 

In the final showdown, McDavid, Barzal, Nylander, Matthews, Makar, and Miller would compete for the fastest time through the long-awaited obstacle course. After strong showings from all six players, Connor McDavid earned first place once more, letting him finish first overall in the whole competition with 25 points, and earning him $1 million. 

Finally, we got the actual All-Star Games on Saturday. In each of the three games, there were two 10-minute halves, and each team had three skaters and a goalie on the ice. This made the games fast-paced and super fun to watch. In the first matchup of Team McDavid vs. Team MacKinnon, Team MacKinnon came out strong with a goal from their captain after three minutes, but Boone Jenner of the Columbus Blue Jackets would promptly respond with his own goal for Team McDavid. Things really heated up in the second half. Team MacKinnon took the lead with goals from Oliver Bjorkstrand of the Seattle Kraken and another from MacKinnon. In a shocking turnaround, team McDavid pulled their goalie and managed to tie the game once more with goals from Pastrnak and McDavid with just 30 seconds and six seconds left in the game, respectively. Team McDavid would ultimately win in the shootout, sending Team MacKinnon (and Sidney Crosby, the only Penguin to compete) home in the first round. 

Next, Team Hughes faced off against Team Matthews. Despite the crowd’s great disdain for him the night before, Kucherov opened the scoring for Team Hughes just a minute into the game. Team Matthews and Team Hughes would continue to trade off goals throughout the first half, with a goal from Alex DeBrincat of the Detroit Red Wings, one from Frank Vatrano of the Anaheim Ducks, and another from DeBrincat to tie the game once more, 2-2. In the second half, the teams continued to consistently trade off points. Mitchell Marner of the Toronto Maple Leafs opened scoring for Team Matthews, and was followed by goals from Pettersson, Filip Forsberg of the Nashville Predators, Brady Tkachuk of the Ottawa Senators, another from Vatrano, and another Forsberg to end the game tied again at 5-5. In the shootout, Team Matthews took the victory. 

In the All-Star final, Team McDavid went up against Team Matthews. Clayton Keller of the Arizona Coyotes opened scoring for Team Matthews two minutes into the game, and the first half would continue on with more fast-paced goal trading. Jenner would score another for Team McDavid, then Marner for Matthews, then Pastrnak for McDavid, Matthews for his team, and one more from Drasaitl to finish off another half with a 3-3 tie. In the final half of the weekend, Forsberg, Matthews, and DeBrincat scored three in a row, putting Team Matthews up 6-3, thanks to an empty net on Team McDavid’s end. Despite one last rally from Tomas Hertl of the San Jose Sharks, Team Matthews would promptly answer with one last goal of their own from Mat Barzal, ending the game 7-4. Team Matthews won the whole shebang, and got to split the million dollars between the team.

This year’s All-Star Weekend was a super fun event all around. Unfortunately, there will be no All-Star Weekend next year, but in its place we’ll get the Four Nations Face-Off between Canada, Finland, Sweden, and the U.S.