2011 NHL All-Star Skills Competition: Team Staal Rolls To Victory, Zdeno Chara Breaks Hardest Shot Record

There were six total events tonight, and in front of a partisan sellout crowd at RBC Center, Team Staal stomped all over Team Lidstrom in the 2011 NHL All-Star SuperSkills Competition by a final score of 33 to 22. Man, I hate calling it “SuperSkills”.

Here’s a full rundown of the evening:

Personally, I’ve never been to an NHL All-Star Weekend before. I’ve been to a few different big NHL events -- Winter Classics, Drafts, Finals, etc -- but this is my first All-Star Game. Because of that, I might not be an authority on the atmosphere at these types of things, but I will say that the fans here in Raleigh are absolutely impressing.

Let’s not pretend like the format of this weekend’s events don’t have anything to do with that. The fact that Team Staal is captained by their captain Eric, and that two of his teammates, Cam Ward and local hero Jeff Skinner, are also on that side. It leads to a lot more pride among the RBC Center faithful, because it’s like they’re cheering for their Canes, not just some stuffy Eastern Conference team that they don’t really care for.

RALEIGH -- The players have strolled on the red carpet, awkwardly talking about how they picked out their outfits for the evening, and now, they’re inside RBC Center preparing for tonight’s All-Star Skills Competition. By the way, we totally are against calling it “SuperSkills” because well.... how hokey is that? Skills Competition, guys. Nice and easy.

Anyway, you’re not here for the editorializing. Let’s get to the evening’s events and tonight’s participants.