The Florida Panthers are set to host the 2023 NHL All-Star Game on Feb. 3 and 4 at FLA Live Arena in Sunrise.
The festivities kick off with the All-Star Skills competition at 7:00 p.m. ET on Friday, with the All-Star Game following at 3:00 p.m. ET on Saturday. Both events will be televised on CBC, Sportsnet and TVA Sports in Canada, while ESPN and ABC will have coverage of the weekend in the United States.
The skills competition will feature some unique South Florida flair, with the introduction of mini-games like Splash Shot and Pitch ‘n’ Puck to go along with the classic All-Star events. We’ll have you covered with the latest results, highlights and analysis from what should be an entertaining Friday night.
All-Star Skills competition events
Splash Shot
This unique event is set to take place on the beach in Fort Lauderdale. Four teams of two players will be required to hit targets in an attempt to dunk their opponent in a water tank. The team to dunk their opponents first wins in this single-elimination tournament.
Participants:
Sidney Crosby
Nathan MacKinnon
Mikko Rantanen
Cale Makar
Igor Shesterkin
Adam Fox
Brady Tkachuk
Matthew Tkachuk
Pitch ‘n’ Puck
The only sport NHL players may love more than hockey is golf, and Florida is the perfect setting. Six players will face off on a par-4 hole with an island green, using both pucks and balls to achieve the lowest score and be declared winners of this brand new competition.
Participants:
Johnny Gaudreau
Clayton Keller
Jason Robertson
Nick Suzuki
Tendy Tandem
The goalies will be getting more love in this year’s All-Star Skill competition with the introduction of the Tendy Tandem event. All eight All-Star goalies will compete in teams of two, with one taking part in the shooting facet and the other tending the goal.
The shooter will take a shot from a designated spot on the ice, and will accumulate points based on where he places the puck in the net. Based on how well the shooting-goalie does, his counterpart in net will face a number of skaters in a shootout. If the goalie in net makes a save, his team earns full points for that round. The game continues until every puck is shot, and the tandem with the most points wins.
Don’t worry, we’re just as confused as you are about this event, so we’ll just have to wait and see how it plays out on Friday.
Participants:
Connor Hellebuyck
Juuse Saros
Igor Shesterkin
Stuart Skinner
Ilya Sorokin
Logan Thompson
Linus Ullmark
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Shooters: Alex Carpenter, Hilary Knight, Emily Clark, Rebecca Johnston, Sarah Nurse
Fastest Skater
The NHL’s fastest skater will be crowned over two rounds with a full lap around the rink each time. A preliminary round will determine the two finalists. Jordan Kyrou won last year’s event with a time of 13.55 seconds, while Connor McDavid is tied with Mike Gartner for most wins in the event.
Participants:
Dylan Larkin
Kirill Kaprizov
Cale Makar
Chandler Stephenson
Andrei Svechnikov
Hardest Shot
Each participant will have two attempts at recording the hardest possible shot from 30 feet away from the net. Victor Hedman won last year’s event with a 103.2 mph slapper, while Zdeno Chara owns the all-time record with a 108.8 mph rocket in 2012.
Participants:
Rasmus Dahlin
Seth Jones
Josh Morrissey
Alex Ovechkin
Elias Pettersson
Breakaway Challenge
Each contestant will get one shootout attempt to impress a panel of judges and earn a score from 1-10. Regular NHL shootout rules will not apply, which means skaters can start anywhere in the neutral zone and go anywhere in the offensive zone — even behind the net (here come the Michigans). If there is a tie for the highest score, those contestants will get another try at claiming the crown. Alex Pietrangelo won the event last year with 64 points.
Participants:
Mitch Marner
Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby (teaming up)
David Pastrnak
Matthew Tkachuk
Celebrity goaltender: Roberto Luongo
Accuracy Shooting
Participants will be tasked with hitting four styrofoam targets placed in the corners of the net while receiving passes from two players standing on either side of the goal, in the fastest time possible. In the semifinal and final round, two nets will be placed side-by-side on the goal-line, and contestants will shoot at the targets simultaneously, with the player hitting all targets first crowned as the champion.
Sebastian Aho won the event in 2022 with a time of 10.937 seconds.
Participants:
Aleksander Barkov
Leon Draisaitl
Kevin Hayes
Jack Hughes
Nazem Kadri
Nikita Kucherov
Connor McDavid
Brock Nelson
Artemi Panarin
Vladimir Tarasenko
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