Getting back to skill
NHL hopes to focus less on comedy and more on talent at skills competition
TAMPA, Fla. — What’s your favourite memory from the NHL All- Star Game skills competition?
Is it Ray Bourque shattering four targets with four pucks, Mike Gartner flying around the ice in the time it takes to send a text or Zdeno Chara hammering a slap shot at a speed unsafe for highway driving? Or are you the type of fan who prefers Alex Ovechkin putting on a fishing hat and a pair of oversized sunglasses and then using two sticks to try to score a goal during a breakaway competition?
If it’s the latter, you’re going to be extremely disappointed with this year’s competition in Tampa.
The wigs and Halloween masks are out. So, too, are the ridiculous events that saw goalies race against each other around the rink as though they were part of the intermission entertainment. Instead, the NHL is toning down the silliness and getting serious about showcasing the actual skills of the individual players.
On Saturday, it’s all about the competition.
There are no teams and confusing point systems. No jokes. Just six events — three old and three new — that will determine who has the hardest shot, who has the most accurate shot, who is the fastest skater, who is the most adept stickhandler, who is the most accurate passer, and which goalie is the best at stopping the top players in the league on a breakaway.
To make sure everyone takes it seriously, the winner of each event gets US $ 25,000, plus bragging rights of being able to legitimately say they are the best at that particular skill. It’s like the NBA’s three- point contest or the home run derby in baseball — and something the NHL should have done a long time ago.
“We wanted to go back to honouring guys for their skills,” said Steve Mayer, the NHL’s chief content officer.
“We want to build some rivalries. We want to find guys who want to be the fastest skater or who’s the best stickhandler, and this is the first step towards that. We are using only all- stars this year, but who knows, maybe in the future we’ll look at bringing other players in.”
It’s Mayer’s mission to make the All- Star Game something we start caring about again.
In that regard, he’s got quite the challenge. It’s not just the NHL — all all- star games and the accompanying skills competitions are a tough sell because the players often don’t try their hardest. Even when they do, it amounts to a night of watching player after player taking shots against hanging targets or skating alone around the rink while being timed.
For the casual fan, it can be downright boring.
The home run derby can be occasionally entertaining because there’s something about a baseball connecting off a bat and sailing 500 feet in the air that’s a bit like watching fireworks explode. It’s breathtaking. The same sometimes goes for the NBA’s dunk competition, which at its best showcases a unique skill that most basketball fans can only dream of performing.
Hockey doesn’t really have that. Or, rather, it has struggled to convey just how impressive its players truly are.
During a game, it’s easy to grasp just how explosive a player like Connor McDavid is as a skater because he’s literally blowing by defencemen. In an all- star skills competition, that same juxtaposition isn’t there. This year’s competition hopes to change that.
“I think fastest skater, we have to do a better job of explaining that this guy’s going 30 miles per hour or whatever it is,” said Mayer, adding that those old Styrofoam targets are being replaced by LED targets that light up randomly in the accuracy shooting contest. “We’d like to put everything in relative perspective and comparing it to other sports, too. These guys are hitting slap shots faster than a pitcher in baseball. You start to understand it better when you can put relative terms into it.”
The bigger challenge is in finding a signature event that even casual fans will be impressed with. Mayer thinks it could be the hardest shot competition — “That’s the one that people talk about the most and are awed by,” he said — but he said each of the events could be particularly appealing based on the competition.
“The NHL has never been at this skill level before,” said Mayer. “People say McDavid’s so fast and this guy’s got the greatest slap shot and wow, what a passer this guy is. We feel like now it’s a showcase to show just how amazing these guys truly are.
“Listen, what we ultimately want to do is have water cooler talk, but also the guys talking like, ‘ hey I’m the fastest,’ and build some rivalries within these competitions and best categorize our players within those groups. I think we’ve done a good job on Saturday of getting the guys that you as a hockey fan would expect in each of the different events.”