NHL Skills Competition 2015: Team Foligno beats Team Toews, 25-19

Welcome to the 2015 NHL Some-Stars Game weekend actual events! Tonight, we got the better of the two days’ worth of action as the players took the ice in Columbus for the Skills Competition. I’ve always liked this event a bit more than the game itself because it lets us see the skills isolated from the gameplay and shows us a bit more of the player personalities.

This one wasn’t particularly close, as Team Foligno took an early lead and never relinquished it to Team Toews. Oh well, the overall score doesn’t matter. What matters is that everybody had fun (or something like that).

The Events

Fastest Skater:

A pretty simple race around the rink to show who has the wheels. Four races between each team decide one point while the skater with the fastest time overall will earn his team a bonus point.

Fastest Overall Skater: Jonathan Drouin (13.103 seconds)

Score after this event: Team Foligno 5 – 0 Team Toews

Breakaway Challenge:

The closest thing the NHL has to a dunk contest, three skaters from each team (and one picked by fan vote) will essentially do a non-shootout shootout attempt where there are essentially no rules. Each skater gets three attempts and the winner of the one point available will be determined by a fan vote.

Winner: Ryan Johansen (44.6% of fan vote)

Score after this event: Team Foligno 6 – 0 Team Toews

Accuracy Shooting:

Who’s the most-accurate sniper? Four head-to-head matchups will determine a point each as one shooter and two passers work together to blast away four foam targets at every corner of the net in the fastest time. A bonus point goes to the team with the fastest shooter to hit all four targets.

Fastest Overall Shooter: Patrick Kane (13.529 seconds)

Score after this event: Team Foligno 10 – 1 Team Toews

Skills Challenge Relay:

A teamwork relay-race showcasing a number of skills for the players. Two heats will have one point at stake each while the fastest overall time wins a bonus point. The relay consists of five events:

• One-Timers: Three shooters (fed by one passer) have to score two goals apiece before the team can advance.
• Passing: One passer has to hit a series of four tiny nets placed at varying distances with saucer passes.
• Puck Control Relay: One skater, one puck, a series of cones.
• Stick Handling: Instead of skating around cones, a skater must get a puck around a series of other pucks as quickly as possible.
• Goalie Goals: One goalie for each side must put it all the way down ice into the net two times to end the relay./

Fastest heat: Foligno Heat One (1:37.979)

Score after this event: Team Foligno 12 – 2 Team Toews

Hardest Shot:

Who’s slapper is the slappiest? Four head-to-head matchups where each shooter gets two attempts to put the hardest slapper possible on net (must go in to count). Winners earn one point and hardest overall shot gets a bonus point.

Hardest Overall Shot: Shea Weber (108.5 mph)

Score after this event: Team Foligno 15 – 4 Team Toews

Shootout:

Three rounds of two minutes and seven skaters per round have teams racing to score shootout goals under current shootout rules. Every goal is worth a point in the competition and every third attempt will be with a puck that’s worth two points instead of one. All 24 players from each team will participate.

Team Foligno scored eight goals and got ten points. Oliver Ekman-Larsson was the only member of Team Foligno to score more than once, beating Fleury both times. Luongo was Team Foligno’s best goalie, allowing only two goals.

Team Toews scored eleven goals and got fifteen points out of it. Nobody on Team Toews scored more than once while Price and Elliott tied for best on their team by only allowing 2/9 goals.

There you have it, the winner of the 2015 All-Stars Skills Challenge is Team Foligno. Good job, jerks.