2015 NHL All-Star Skills Competition: Full Results
The 2015 NHL All-Star skills competition took place tonight in Columbus, and the players put on nothing short of a show for the fans.
NHL All-Star weekend is underway and with the teams being chosen yesterday, the next event up was the skills competition. The competition was made up of six events: fastest skater, breakaway challenge, accuracy shooting, the skills challenge relay, hardest shot, and finally the shootout.
Early in the competition Team Foligno took the lead.
More from NHL
- NHL Rumors: Legendary Patrice Bergeron retires, which 3 players could be next to hang up their skates?
- NHL Rumors: Latest on Hart, Hellebuyck, Gibson trade possibilities
- NHL Rumors: 5 forwards most likely to sign early extensions this summer
- NHL Rumors: Where things stand with Erik Karlsson, Penguins and Hurricanes
- NHL Rumors: Penguins nearly traded for Erik Karlsson at deadline
During the first heat of the fastest skater competition, we saw the effects of the trade that took place yesterday night during the All-Star Fantasy Draft. Phil Kessel went up against Tyler Seguin, and Team Foligno won by tenths of a second.
The two players following Kessel, Jiri Sekac and Zemgus Girgensons both won their heats as well, putting team Foligno up 5-0 after the first competition.
The second event was the breakaway challenge, where players were tested on their abilities to take their one-time chance getting the puck past the tendy in the most creative way possible.
Ryan Johansen of the Columbus Blue Jackets, part of Team Foligno, swept this event with his creativity. The audience loved his enthusiasm, which included bringing a little boy onto the ice to take the shot against Chicago Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford.
The accuracy challenge, won by Chicago Blackhawks Patrick Kane — assistant captain to Team Foligno — was extremely entertaining, particularly for ‘Hawks fans. Patrick Kane and the captain of the opposing team, Jonathan Toews are a very close, yet competitive duo, constantly trying to one-up the other. Kaner barely stole this win out of the hands of Toews, but in doing so continued to put his team in the lead.
The skills challenge relay is one that always poses the most difficulty for the players as they are required to complete a series of difficult tasks in order to win. Once again, team Foligno came out on top in this challenge.
The hardest shot challenge is always one of the favorite events for players and fans alike. The current record is held by Zdeno Chara of the Boston Bruins who shot the puck between the pipes at 108.8mph. This year, however, Chara was not present for the All-Star weekend, which meant that Shea Weber finally had a chance of taking the title.
Although he didn’t beat Chara’s previous record, Weber of the Nashville Predators shot the puck at an insane 108.5 mph, after missing the net on his first heat. Weber’s shot gave team Toews the win over the home team during this round of the competition.
The final challenge of the event was the shootout.
Although both teams competed head-on during this event, Team Foligno was able to outdo their competitors and win the challenge.
The final score of the 2015 NHL All-Star skills competition was 19-25 with Team Foligno taking the victory out of the hands of Team Toews.
Tomorrow the NHL All-Star game will take place at 5 pm on NBCSN. Although Team Foligno took over the Skills Challenge this evening, the winner of tomorrow’s game is completely unpredictable.
Each of the teams have an extremely impressive roster of playmakers who are able to find the back of the net whenever the opportunity arises.
More from FanSided
- Joe Burrow owes Justin Herbert a thank you note after new contract
- Chiefs gamble at wide receiver could already be biting them back
- Braves-Red Sox start time: Braves rain delay in Boston on July 25
- Yankees: Aaron Boone gives optimistic return date for Aaron Judge
- MLB Rumors: Yankees-Phillies trade showdown, Mariners swoop, India goes to Seattle