2016 NHL All Star Game Skills Competition Recap: East's Skills Pay The Bills...

NHL Fastest Skater:

Race one would see Dylan Larkin of the Red Wings taking on Roman Josi of the hometown Nashville Predators. Larkin would take the race with a time of 12.894 seconds Josi would clock in with a time just over 13 seconds. (13.527) The second race would see Brandon Saad of the Blue Jackets taking on Matt Duchene of the Avalanche. Saad would win the heat with a time of 13.634. Duchene would clock in at 14.026. The third race would put Erik Karlsson of the Senators against Taylor Hall of the Oilers. Karlsson would falter around the corner on the homestretch giving Hall the win with a time of 13.654. Karlsson would finish with a time of 14.630. The final race would be the slowest (sorry guys). Kris Letang of the Penguins would take on Dustin Byfuglien of the Jets. Letang would win the race with a time of 14.081. It was a close one though as Byfuglien would clock in with a time of 14.203. Now because Larkin would have the fastest time, the East receives a bonus point. He would also go on to break Mike Gartner's record on the outside course with a time of 13.172 seconds. The crazier thing was he actually stumbled a little bit on the final turn so that time could have been even faster!

At the end of the first event the East would lead the West 5-1.

Breakaway Challenge:

In the breakaway challenge you have 3 skaters and a goalie (the goalie is just there for so cause I mean really?) from each conference. Also, as most of you know penalty shot rules do not apply. Each shooter would shoot twice. First up was Brandon Saad. Saad would execute some sort of stick bounce to glove and score. Next up would be James Neal. Starts down the ice, and as he shoots puck number one, puck number two was being dropped and shot into the net. Next up would be Evgeni Kuznetsov who just stick handled a bunch and didn't score. Matt Duchene was next up. He tried to win over the crowd with a cowboy hat. It didn't work though and neither did his wild and crazy stick moves as the puck would fall off of his stick not even getting a chance on goal. Next up was P.K. Subban who started off just bouncing the puck off of his stick but then bounced it from stick to skate back to stick and backhanded it at Rinne. (The puck never touched the ice) It was actually quite amazing. Next up was Brent Burns, and he had a little back up. His son would join him on the ice, get passed the puck, and score. Burns clearly trying the aww factor. (I mean why not?) On Saad's second attempt lots of footwork and stick handling but he lost the puck and didnt score. Neal's second attempt turned into inviting Dierks Bentley on the ice and letting him score a goal. The quirkyness wasn't done there though as Rinne would actually use a Bentley guitar. Needless to say he was safe though as Kuznetsov was using a right handed stick. (He's left handed) Up next was Duchene who came out with some more wild stick handling. He would drop the puck again though, but recovered to score a one handed, in between the legs goal. On Subban's final attempt he would dress as Jaromir Jagr wig and all. The final shooter would be Burns of and he broke out the evolution of Brent Burns set to Star Wars music that ended with him in a Chewbacca mask. The winner however was P.K. Subban. You can watch the entirety of the Challenge here:

Eastern Conference takes the point.

Accuracy Shooting:

Up first would be John Tavares of the Islanders against Patrick Kane of the Blackhawks. Tavares would win with a time of 12.294. Kane would finish with a time of 20 seconds flat and was booed the whole time. Next up would be Patrice Bergeron of the Bruins against Joe Pavelski of the Sharks. Bergeron was not very accurate though as he posted a time of 23.362 seconds. Pavelski would beat him with a time of 14.088. Next up would be Claude Giroux of the Flyers against Corey Perry of the Ducks. Giroux would post a time of 17.254 seconds. Perry was a little faster though posting a winning time of 13.771. The final round would see Evgeni Malkin taking on Jamie Benn. This was the closest of the 4 rounds with Malkin edging out Benn 16.179 to 16.664 The overall winner was John Tavares and he would get the extra point for the East. (Side note: Vladimir Tarasenko was one of the passers for the west)

Skills Challenge Relay:

In this event there are two groups. A righty one timer group, and a lefty one timer group. 14 skaters and two goalies compete at various stations. The first station would be one timers from three different spots. up first would be the right handed shooters from the East. Aaron Ekblad, Erik Karlsson, and Steven Stamkos. Each player would have to make two shots each with the hardest being in between the circle and the red line. The next station would be Nicklas Backstrom passing the pucks into the miniature nets. Justin Faulk would take the puck control portion. Claude Giroux would handle the puck (literally) and Braden Holtby would be in net for the Goalie goal portion. This group combined for a total time of 1:38.410.

The Western Conference right handed shooters would get their turn next. Shea Weber, Drew Doughty and Corey Perry would handle the one timer duties. Corey Perry took a lot of time on this one. Daniel Sedin would take the passing accuracy portion. Johnny Gaudreau would be your man for the puck control portion. Patrick Kane would take the handling of the puck mess it up and get booed while doing it. Rinne would be your goalie for the goalie goal station. They would wind up with a time of 2:15.371.

The East would get their left handers up next as Ryan McDonagh, Ryan O'Reilly, and Leo Komarov would handle the one timers. Evgeny Kuznetsov would handle the passing accuracy portion. Kris Letang would take on the puck control relay, but would lose the most important thing..the puck. Dylan larking would handle the puck and hometown kid Ben Bishop would take the goalie goals. they would finish with a time of 1:44.446

The West left handers would have a familiar face as Vladimir Tarasenko would be in the shooters group. He would be along side Mark Giordano and James Neal. These three would make quick work of the one timers as Vladdy would be the only one that missed (it was once, I think he got excited.) Jamie Benn would take the passing accuracy portion. Roman Josi would take the puck control relay portion. Puck handling would be Tyler Seguin and Devin Dubnyk would take the goalie goals. They would finish with a time of 1:27.687. Not only would it be enough to win the round, but it would be the overall best score and give the West the extra bonus point.

Hardest Shot:

Each shooter has two attempts at shooting a puck as hard as they can. That's it. No goalie. Nothing. Heat One would see Aaron Ekblad taking on Dustin Byfuglien. Ekblad's hardest shot was 93.4 MPH. Byfuglien on the other hand would win the heat with a shot of 99.6 MPH. Heat two would see Evgeni Malkin take on Tyler Seguin. Malkin would win the heat with a shot of 97 MPH. Seguin would top out at 95 MPH. The third heat would see Steven Stamkos taking on feel good story John Scott. Stamkos has a harder shot though and that's what counts here as he beats Scott with a 103.9 MPH shot. Scott would top out at 95.9 MPH. They would save the best for last though as Shea Weber would take on P.K. Subban. Subban topped out at 102.3 MPH. Sorry P.K. you're going against Weber whose shot topped out this year at 108.1 MPH. Wow. Needless to say that was enough to get the west the bonus point.

Shootout:

The shootout would consist of three rounds. Those rounds would be 2 minutes each. The first and third shooters of each round would receive 2 points from the Discover bonus puck. Shooters for the East in round one would be: Malkin, Jagr, Subban, O'Reilly, Komarov, and Ekblad versus Dubnyk. The West would counter with Kane, Duchene, Burns, Giordano, Tarasenko (Woo!), and Sedin against Luongo.

The East shooters for the second round were: Bergeron, Backstrom, Stamkos, Kuznetsov, McDonagh, and Faulk against John Gibson. The West would send out Pavelski, Hall, Benn, Neal, Gaudreau, and Byfuglien against Holtby.

The final round would see the East send out Giroux, Larkin, Tavares, Letang, Karlsson, and Saad against Quick. The West line would be Scott, Weber, Seguin, Perry, Doughty, and Josi versus Schneider.

The East would win this round 17-4 and overall would win 29-12. The East would choose to play first in the All Star game.