Saturday, January 26, 2008

All Star Skills Competion

The NHL Skills competition was nothing unexpected, and surprisingly enjoyable. There was little to no attempt to take the event too seriously and that really helped the atmosphere. The youngstars game which was so bad last year was helped by having such odd rules this year, that it couldn't even be considered to be a hockey game which actually made it more enjoyable.

The real highlights of the night were the shootout and the shot placement competition. In the accuracy contest Tomas Kaberle of Toronto shot four for four on his first try and was four for five on a second chance. In the shootout Ovechkin stole the show as he was the only player who seemed to understand that it was designed to be over the top more than anything else. The judges didn't really do a good job, but nobody was really all that interested in keeping track of the score anyhow.

I didn't see Buffalo's representative take part in any of the competetions (although I missed the first few), but he was there and is more likely to make a difference in the actual game, which is tomorrow night.

No comments: