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”.
2011 NHL All-Star Skills Competition: Team Staal Pleases Partisan Crowd, Crushes Team Lidstrom 33-22
Here’s a full rundown of the evening:
EVENT ONE: FASTEST SKATER
After six head-to-head prelims, including a goalie skate and a backwards skate, Team Staal’s Michael Grabner defeated Team Lidstrom’s Taylor Hall in the head-to-head final. At the end of the event, Staal came out on top with a 5 to 3 edge.
EVENT TWO: BREAKAWAY CHALLENGE
Fans voted on this one, which might be the most entertaining event of them all. Alex Ovechkin didn’t really do anything all that spectacular, but he still won the fan vote over teammate P.K. Subban by a wide-17.2 percent margin. Poor Evgeny Dadonov got a low score of 2.1 percent. Ovechkin’s winning score was 38.5 percent.
At the end of this event, Team Staal was running up their lead already, 12 to 5.
EVENT THREE: ACCURACY SHOOTING
A Skills Competition staple, the accuracy shooting contest didn’t disappoint this year. Daniel Sedin won it for Team Staal by going 4-for-4 in the first round, although that doesn’t really matter since it was all about time this year. Still, not missing usually increases your chances.
Sedin put up a time of 8.9 seconds in the final against Team Lidstrom’s Patrick Kane. Kane got to the final by beating his teammate Jonathan Toews in the first round.
At the end of this one, Staal was up 18 to 6.
EVENT FOUR: SKILLS CHALLENGE RELAY
This event was pretty darn cool. It featured five separate events connected in relay format. Each team had two groups participate, and the best overall time was named the winner. Thanks to Jonathan Toews going four-for-four in the final event, the accuracy shooting, Team Lidstrom’s first group ran away with this one.
The other events involved a one-timer contest in which shooters had to get one-time shots on net and over an eight-inch high barrier. Three different shooters shot from the point, the mid-boards and a tough angle near the goal line. In the second event, skaters had to string passes into small nets along the ice, and in the third and fourth events, puck control was the objective.
At the end of this event, Lidstrom was able to cut the lead a bit... but not much. 21 to 11.
EVENT FIVE: HARDEST SHOT
All you need is a little Zdeno Chara in your life. He broke his own record tonight, blasting a 105.9 mile per hour shot in the final vs. Shea Weber. His old record, set in Montreal in 2009, was 105.4 miles per hour.
Weber gave him a run for his money in the first round though, beating the king with a shot of 104.8 miles per hour. Chara couldn’t get his over 103.7 in the first round.
Heading into the final event, the score was 25 to 15 in favor of Staal.
EVENT SIX: ELIMINATION SHOOTOUT
Even with a blowout score, the event was still in doubt entering the final event. Every player participated in this one, and since every goal counted as a point on the overall scoreboard, a 10-goal deficit could be made up pretty easily.
Each shooter who scored would advance to the next round, while the three goalies rotated out every few shooters. The event ended when the last shooter to score was the only one still standing.
For the most part, though, the goalies were just too good. Team Lidstrom had a huge chance to make up some ground thanks to some great saves by their own goalies -- Marc-Andre Fleury, Jonas Hiller and Tim Thomas -- but Lidstrom’s team couldn’t beat Carey Price, Henrik Lundqvist and Cam Ward.
Dustin Byfuglien, Danny Briere, Martin St. Louis, Patrick Kane, Kevin Shattenkirk and Martin Havlat scored for Team Lidstrom in Round 1, while P.K. Subban, Corey Perry, Rick Nash, Logan Couture, Eric Karlsson and yes, Eric Staal, scored for Team Staal.
In the second round, Byfuglien, Subban, Briere, Nash, Couture, Kane, Karlsson, Shattenkirk, Staal and Havlat all missed. Perry and St. Louis were the only two left standing for Round 3.
Perry was able to ring one off the post to advance, while St. Louis couldn’t bury a backhander, giving Perry and Team Staal another title.
The final score? 33 to 22, a blowout for the hometown team.
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