2023 NHL All-Star Weekend Open Thread

Feb 3, 2023 - 2:45 PM

Here is your open thread for the festivities of NHL All-Star Weekend in South Florida, with details of both events, including where you can see Columbus Blue Jackets representative Johnny Gaudreau.

Johnny met with media from around the league for a wide-ranging interview. It’s interesting to me that the thing he’s most willing to talk about is the other sports he’s a fan of. (Go Birds)

Friday, February 3, 2023

What: 2023 NHL All-Star Skills
TV: ESPN/ESPN+
When: 7 p.m. EST

The events this year are:

• Upper Deck NHL Fastest Skater™
• Great Clips NHL Breakaway Challenge™
• Discover NHL Tendy Tandem™
• Enterprise NHL Splash Shot™
• Honda NHL Accuracy Shooting™
• Chipotle NHL Pitch ‘n Puck™
• GEICO NHL Hardest Shot™

Full details can be found here.

Gaudreau will participate in just one event: the “Pitch ‘n Puck.” Even before he was included, this was a new event I was looking forward to. Players will compete on a par 4 golf hole via a combination of golf and hockey shots. Much like Zach Werenski’s event last year in a water fountain in Vegas, this event was pre-filmed, on Wednesday.

The other new events also sound fun. In Splash Shot, players will fire at targets in an attempt to dunk their opponents. In Tendy Tandem, the goalies from each division will be paired up, with one earning points for shooting and one earning points for making saves on breakaways. The skaters doing the shooting will be some of the best women’s hockey players: Alex Carpenter, Hilary Knight, Emily Clark, Rebecca Johnston, and Sarah Nurse.

Saturday, February 4, 2023

What: 2023 Honda NHL All-Star Game
TV: ABC/ESPN+
When: 3 p.m. EST

This is the usual 3v3 tournament format, with Gaudreau playing on the Metro Division. He is joined by college teammate Kevin Hayes of the Flyers, and former Blue Jacket Artemi Panarin of the Rangers. Rod Brind’Amour of the Hurricanes is head coach. Oh, and two of the greatest players in the history of the game. NBD. The full roster:

Andrei Svechnikov, F, CAR
Johnny Gaudreau, F, CBJ
Jack Hughes, F, NJD
Brock Nelson, F, NYI
Ilya Sorokin, G, NYI
Adam Fox, D, NYR
Artemi Panarin, F, NYR
Igor Shesterkin, G, NYR
Kevin Hayes, F, PHI
Sidney Crosby, F, PIT
Alex Ovechkin, F, WAS

All rosters can be found here.

In a really bizarre move, only the Central Division has the usual allotment of three defensemen. Every other team has just one, so there are just six defensemen overall in this event. Weird, right?

So...which skills events are you most looking forward to tonight? Which team do you think will win the 3v3 tournament tomorrow?