2019 SAP NHL All-Star Skills Preview and GameThread

Friday, January 25, 2019 - 9:00 EST
SAP Center, San Jose, CA
TV: NBCSN, Sportsnet, CBC, TVA Sports

The NHL All-Star Game weekend is upon us and tonight, the celebration kicks off with the 2019 SAP NHL Skills event from the SAP Center, home of the San Jose Sharks, at 9:00 pm EST.

The individual winners of the following events will win $25,000. NHL.com features all of the details.

• Bridgestone NHL Fastest Skater — Eight players take one full rink-wide lap. Fastest time wins.
• Enterprise NHL Premier Passer — Eight players take part in three separate passing skills, including Breakout Pass (A player is given 10 pucks to attempt a pass to three “players”), Mini Nets (Players must complete a pass over barricades and into four mini nets), and Target Passing (Players complete passes at targets that light up randomly every three seconds).
• Ticketmaster NHL Save Streak — An event grouped by division, goalies battle to make the most saves. At least four goalies and all 36 skaters take part, with goaltenders facing an opposing division, and nine scoring attempts.
• Gatorade NHL Puck Control — Eight players compete in a timed single-round event involving three skills including Stickhandling (Player controls a puck through a series of 10 pucks in a straight line), Cone Control (Player controls a puck in a zigzag formation through series of eight cones), and Gates (Upon approaching a gate, the player must shoot or guide the puck through the lit rung of the gate).
• SAP NHL Hardest Shot — Four players compete for the hardest shot over two rounds.
• Honda NHL Accuracy Shooting — In this timed event consisting of eight players, the shooter, positioned 25 feet from the goal line, will shoot pucks at five LED targets inside the net. /

It was just announced Cam Atkinson will compete in the Fastest Skater competition while Seth Jones will once again compete in the Hardest Shot contest.

For tonight’s #NHLSkillsCompetition … #CBJ Cam Atkinson is in fastest skater, and Seth Jones is in hardest shot.

— Aaron Portzline (@Aportzline) January 25, 2019

And we know they’ll be a part of the Save Streak as they will test their shootout skills against opposing goalies.

Here’s the entire slew of participants, including U.S. Olympian Kendall Coyne-Schofield, becoming the first woman to partake in the event, where she will test her talents in the Fastest Skater challenge.

Kendall Coyne will become the first woman to compete in the NHL All-Star skills competition when she takes the ice for the fastest skater race. See all event participants here: https://t.co/07LSrAHkoo pic.twitter.com/56VyRaZldo

— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) January 25, 2019

Also participating along side her at All-Star Weekend will be Canadian Olympians Renata Fast and Rebecca Johnston, and U.S. Olympian Brianna Decker.

Headed back to California for weekend!! So excited to participate in the 2019 @NHL skills competition this weekend with @Bdecker14 @RJohnst6 @RenataFast! We can’t wait to represent @usahockey @HockeyCanada and the women’s game all weekend #NHLAllStar

— Kendall Coyne Schofield (@KendallCoyne) January 23, 2019

No word yet on which events the others might partake in.

As for the two Blue Jackets, you might remember the 2017 event in Los Angeles where Atkinson participated in the Fastest Skater Competition, just losing out to Nikita Kucherov.

Jones beat Victor Hedman in the Hardest Shot Competition.

Both also participated in other events, including the Skills Challenge Relay, which Jones’ one-timer helped the Metropolitan to victory over the Atlantic.

And of course that time Atkinson connected with Sidney Crosby in the Accuracy Shooting contest. Let’s see if Cam and Seth can bring home any more hardware.