All Star Game and Skills Competition

So this weekend is "All Star Weekend" for the NHL. This includes the Skills Competition, the Young Stars game and the All Star game. The festivities are being held at the Philips Arena in Atlanta, GA. This is the home of the Eastern Conference Atlanta Thrashers.

A common theme for the NHL these past few years as been change. Whether it has been the rule changes, the addition of the shoot out or the new jerseys, the League has done its best to update the game and make it more appealing to the public. So why not change the format of the Skills Competition to make it a little more interesting then in the past.

The skills competition is broken into seven different parts and each part has 2 goals to be offered to the team that wins the event. The team with the most goals at the end of the event wins. Simple. Also, every player on each team must compete in at least one event. Here are the seven different events that us the viewers will be seeing as we turn on the TV come Saturday.

Obstacle Course Relay
Fastest Skater
Elimination Shootout
Youth Stars Game
Accuracy Shooting
Hardest Shot
Breakaway Challenge

(Info on the event thanks to NHL.com)

This new format gives the Skills Competition a little more meat behind it instead of just something fun to watch or something that the players have to do without some sort of reward. This new format might help make the players take the skills portion of the weekend a little more seriously then in the past. We shall see where it takes us.

Either way the All-Star game is a great weekend for Hockey and actually All-Star games for any sport are exciting. Getting to see our favorite players on the same team almost like making fantasy team line ups come to life is a dream come true for many fans.


Once the weekend passes, you know I'll be writing all about it... Updates on the scores of the evening, Brian Leetch #2 getting hung from the rafters of MSG and hopefully a Sid the Kid injury update coming sometime this weekend as well..

Cheers,
Matty D.