A Saturday night prelude to the 2015 All-Star Game was a competition between the two teams on which team was more skilled. Sometimes pegged as the best part of the weekend, the event had its moments here and there. Seeing the array of different jerseys all over the ice is something we love seeing. But what do we love seeing even more? Shea Weber and Filip Forsberg.
Both Weber and Forsberg partook in the Gatorade NHL Skills Challenge Relay, but Weber was only shooting one-timers from above the faceoff circle. Yawn. How long do you think it took him to pot two? Exactly. Forsberg, on the other hand, was a gem. With the second team in the relay, he was tasked with the stick handling challenge, in which he had to maneuver the puck around several stationary pucks. Words can’t describe how silky smooth those hands of his are. Check it out:
Not a single player was that accurate. Unfortunately, that was pretty much it for the Prince, except for one attempt in the Discover NHL Shootout. We’ve said it plenty of times before, but Preds fans are incredibly lucky to be able to watch this kid every night, because they know he can do stuff like this:
Of course, the big thing that Nashvillians (and plenty of others) were waiting for was the AMP Hardest Shot Competition. Without Zdeno Chara in attendance, Weber had all the room in the world to not only win, but try and break Chara’s record. The only shooter that came close was Alex Ovechkin, who hit 101.4 on both of his attempts.
Weber missed his first attempt, a 101.8 mph slapper launched wide of the net, which meant it didn’t count. (Is that net regulation size, or what?!) He had one more shot to put the event to bed, and he made it count.
Whoa, doggy. A final shot of 108.5 mph to win the contest, and as you can see even the pros are impressed. Poor Alex Ovechkin. He misses out on the car in the last moments of the fantasy draft, and he’s knocked off the leaderboard by The Captain. We just hope that Weber replaced his divot.
That’s a wrap from the Skills Competition, folks. Overall, a little bit of a slow start for the All-Stars, but the second half was tons o fun, with a bit of help from the boys on Gold. Join us tomorrow for coverage of the final event of the weekend, the 2015 All-Star Game!
OTF Tweets of the Competition:
The most interesting part of my day by far was @johngaudreau03 asking me if he could light his stick on fire. #PlayerSafety
— Patrick Burke (@BurkieYCP) January 25, 2015
The crowd in the section near me started chanting “Quack! Quack! Quack!” during that. Yessssssss.
— Travis Hughes (@TravisSBN) January 25, 2015
Ovechkin taking extra shots for the second night in a row.
— Down Goes Brown (@DownGoesBrown) January 25, 2015
Guys don’t tell anyone but I’m currently deflating a few pucks for the breakaway relay…. #NHLAllStarWeekend
— Strombone (@strombone1) January 25, 2015
#NHLAllStar game Selfie!!!! pic.twitter.com/gWwGyT1kGa
— Brian Elliott (@KidElls1) January 25, 2015
Just rookies taking in the #NHLAllStarSkillsComp pic.twitter.com/pKCoqZwa23
— Aaron Ekblad (@Ekblad5FLA) January 25, 2015
Look at how precious they are RT @PeteBlackburn: pic.twitter.com/T6RujOdCH0
— Jen LC (@RegressedPDO) January 25, 2015
I’m told the Blue Jackets are replacing the cannon with Shea Weber.
— Dave Lozo (@DaveLozo) January 25, 2015
— Alex Prewitt (@alex_prewitt) January 25, 2015