Connor McDavid on Friday won the NHL All-Star Skills competition, taking home the US$1 million prize while showing once again why he is considered the best ice hockey player in the league.
The reigning and three-time Most Valuable Player dominated the competition which he had helped the league and the players’ union revive after thinking in previous years it had gotten “a little gimmicky, a little out there.”
With his assist, it went back to the basics and McDavid was dominant.
Photo: AFP
“I thought it was a fun event,” McDavid said.
The Edmonton Oilers captain finished first in the fastest skater race, winning that event for the fourth time in his career, and stick-handling and went four for four in accuracy shooting.
“Obviously he’s the epitome of competitiveness on a daily basis, so I’m not surprised,” Oilers teammate Leon Draisaitl said.
Three players from Western Conference rivals the Colorado Avalanche also put on a show.
Nathan MacKinnon won the one-timers event, while Cale Makar had the hardest shot at 102.56mph (165.05kph).
Goaltender Alexandar Georgiev made nine saves in one-on-one to win US$100,000.
The prize money was one of the new wrinkles at the redesigned skills competition that featured just 12 players.
“I think guys like it,” Draisaitl said. “I don’t know how it was received on TV, but I thought it was good.”
Fans cheered Maple Leafs All-Stars Auston Matthews and William Nylander, and booed Nikita Kucherov multiple times when they did not appreciate his lack of effort in the passing and stick-handling events.
Kucherov even waved to the crowd after finishing dead last in the stick-handling race — in excess of 44 seconds, well behind McDavid’s winning time of 25.755 seconds and slower than David Pastrnak, who missed the net.
Unsurprisingly, Kucherov was one of four players eliminated after the first six events.
Connor Bedard, the top pick in the draft by the Chicago Blackhawks and the frontrunner for NHL rookie of the year before breaking his jaw on Jan. 5, made a surprise appearance as a passer for the one-timers event.
Bedard was picked to participate before the injury.
Leafs alumni Doug Gilmour and Steve Thomas, and Toronto Professional Women’s Hockey League players and Canadian Olympians Sarah Nurse and Blayre Turnbull served as passers in accuracy shooting.
Jesper Boqvist on Tuesday scored the go-ahead goal midway through the third period as the Florida Panthers, after raising their second straight NHL Stanley Cup banner, opened the defense of the title by beating the Chicago Blackhawks 3-2. Mackie Samoskevich — getting his second assist, the fifth two-point game of his career — chipped the puck toward the goal and Boqvist knocked it out of the air for the lead with 10 minutes, 20 seconds left. A.J. Greer and Carter Verhaeghe also had goals for Florida, who got 17 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky. Frank Nazar had a goal and an assist and Teuvo
HOMETOWN ZERO: Fans relished the fall of former Brewer-turned-Cubs manager Craig Counsell, as Milwaukee braces to face the Dodgers, who in 2018 denied them a pennant Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy has referred to his team as the “Average Joes,” a nod to their small-market status and lack of big names, but after they beat rivals the Chicago Cubs 3-1 in the decisive fifth game of their National League Division Series (NLDS) on Saturday night, Murphy decided it was time for an upgrade. “You can call them the average Joes, but I say they’re the above-average Joes,” he said. The Brewers relied on contributions from just about every player to get past the Cubs. Andrew Vaughn hit a tiebreaking homer in the fourth inning, and William Contreras and Brice
Mexico’s teenage playmaker Gilberto Mora has lit up the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Chile as he basks in the limelight afforded by the absences of Barcelona and Real Madrid stars Lamine Yamal and Franco Mastantuono. “I don’t know if I’m the biggest star, and I’m not really interested in that. I think you can always give more,” 16-year-old Mora said before Mexico’s 4-1 win against host nation Chile in the round-of-16 on Tuesday, in which he provided the assist for the opening goal. Next on Mora’s schedule is a quarter-final clash against Argentina this morning Taiwan time, but after
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Nathan Lukes hit a two-run single and Addison Barger had three of Toronto’s 12 hits as the Blue Jays bounced back After taking down the storied New York Yankees in their own ballpark in their American League Division Series on Wednesday, Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider was ready to revel in the triumph. “Start spreading the news,” Schneider said while popping a bottle of bubbly to set off the Blue Jays’ jubilant celebration inside their Yankee Stadium clubhouse. With the party under way, the familiar lyrics from Frank Sinatra’s version of New York, New York — the Yankees’ long-time victory anthem — sounded in the background as roaring Toronto players sprayed each other with booze in the Bronx. This time, it was their
RSS