|
All Star Skills fun with a hint of cringe |
|
|
|
|
|
The All Star Skills were last night and every year I get enjoyment out of the event. If you take it for what it is it’s not a complete waste of time. Some highlights from the event:
Kendall Coyne Schofield filled in for Nathan MacKinnon in the fastest skater contest and did a great job. She is the first woman to ever take part in the event. She was only one second behind Connor McDavid. It was McDavid who won the event for the third straight year barely scraping by Jack Eichel’s mark. In a weird sequence Cam Atkinson looked like he stopped trying and thus blew his chance of winning the event.
Auston Matthews is going to be a popular player in San Jose for some time. Taking off his blue Maple Leafs jersey he revealed a Toronto Patrick Marleau one. It was a great surprise and gesture bringing the home fans to their feet. Speaking of Matthews his hands are outrageous. He’s one of my favorite salary cap era players. He’s my modern left handed Mario Lemieux. His forehand to backhand on the breakaways is stupid good.
I liked the stickhandling competition because of the finishing sequence. For most of these players getting the puck flat on your stick to pick it up isn’t difficult. The part I enjoyed was how they all tried to navigate getting the puck through the slot to get it placed for their next obstacle. The deft touch Gaudreau used to saucer it through the low bracket so it landed exactly how he wanted was great and set him up for the last one.
Marc-Andre Fleury is always at home at these events. His trademark pokecheck was in full effect on the breakaways. He didn’t quite get to his 14 saves in a row as last time, but it’s the perfect event for him. Henrik Lundvist took home the event with 12 saves in a row. The impressive part about his run was that he was down to his last chance. The next goal was going to end his event. He rattled off 12 in a row. It took Jeff Skinner’s great around the world fake shot double deke to finally get him.
The accuracy shooting is always a great event. I like the incorporation with technology so the players have to hit a specific target. This is a lot better than the players receiving passes from players and taking forever to pull the trigger. This used to be a problem for the home run derby as well. David Pastrnak was the big winner. Even the players who may have missed or hit the targets that weren’t lit up were fun to watch. The releases that guys like Nikita Kucherov and Auston Matthews have give you a window into an NHL goaltender’s hell. Kris Letang did a nice job filling in for the ill Sidney Crosby. He placed second going up against some of the best forward snipers in the game.
I know that it can border on cringe when the players get in a funk and consistently miss the tiny nets in the passing competition, but I like watching highly skilled players trying to do it. In the future the nets should probably be a little bit wider and I think instead of weaving through pucks they should set up another clever stickhandling drill ala some of those go pro videos. I’m sure they could think of something.
Not everything was great. As per usual the broadcast is an abomination. The All Star Skills is an event where you might get some casual fans to tune in and NBC can’t help but keep throwing out dated, bland, and creepy personalities to cover this sport.
Let’s start with the cringiest weirdo in all of sports broadcasting, Pierre McGuire. Die hard fans hate him and anybody not familiar with him got a nice introduction
God, I hate that guy.
Let’s talk about Keith Jones. Why is Keith Jones? It would be next to impossible to find somebody more dull, boring, and vanilla to try and cover this sport. Not to mention his bland (and wrong) analysis. He’s not even a good ex-player. None of this makes sense. Nobody wants to watch Keith Jones.
Kendall Coyne Schofield had the spotlight for a few moments. It wasn’t long, but the broadcast couldn’t help but mention her husband. She’s a Gold Medal winner and there on her own merits. We don’t need to know about every female athlete’s husband. Although, Pierre might have needed a reminder she had one.
Leon Draisaitl was great in the passing competition. He was the best last night… among the men.
Brianna Decker who wasn’t televised led things off and beat Leon Draisaitl by three seconds. The NHL of course did not recognize this, or broadcast it, or give her the 25k for winning. Hockey is for everyone!
Last night was the same as it ever was. Some good moments with the league and broadcast partners cringing it up.
Thanks for reading!
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»