The 2023 NHL All-Star Game takes place Saturday afternoon at Live Arena in Sunrise, Fla., and the festivities begin Friday evening with the All-Star Skills Competition.
This year’s event will feature many of the usual popular events seen annually, plus the league is also introducing several new and unique events that take advantage of South Florida’s warm climate and oceanside setting.
In addition to dozens of the NHL stars, a handful of top talents from women’s hockey – Team Canada’s Sarah Nurse, Emily Clark, Rebecca Johnston, plus Team USA’s Hilary Knight and Alex Carpenter – are scheduled to participate in various events during All-Star weekend.
Here’s a look at what to expect from each event and which athletes will be participating.
ENTERPRISE NHL DISCOVER SPLASH SHOT
This event (which was pre-taped Thursday) will take place outdoors on a beach in Fort Lauderdale. It features eight players split into two four-player teams. Players will go head-to-head in this single elimination tournament where they’ll aim to hit all targets before attempting to dunk their opponent. Wind and the nearby ocean elements could potentially play a factor. The player to dunk their opponent first wins. There will be a redo if two players get dunked at the same time.
2023 Participants:
• Sidney Crosby, PIT
• Nathan MacKinnon, COL
• Mikko Rantanen, COL
• Cale Makar, COL
• Igor Shesterkin, NYR
• Adam Fox, NYR
• Brady Tkachuk, OTT
• Matthew Tkachuk, FLA
CHIPOTLE NHL PITCH ‘N PUCK
This event is best suited to any stars who happen to golf in the off-season. If you know anything about hockey players, you probably know golf is a popular pastime for many NHL athletes. In this event, the players are challenged to combine their hockey and golf shot skills on an iconic Sunshine State golf hole. The four players will attempt to sink pucks and balls into provided holes in the fewest shots possible. The player with the lowest score will be dubbed the winner. If there’s a tie in this event, the tiebreaker will be a longest drive contest.
2023 Participants:
• Johnny Gaudreau, CBJ
• Clayton Keller, ARI
• Jason Robertson, DAL
• Nick Suzuki, MTL
DISCOVER NHL TENDY TANDEM
This is an event for the eight all-star netminders and includes the five women from Team Canada and Team USA mentioned above. One goaltender from each division will be designated the “shooting goalie” while the other will stay in net. Shooting goalies earn points based on how accurate their shots are. Their teammate between the pipes will face rushes – either a breakaway, two-on-0 or three-on-0 rush – based on the number of points their goalie tandem teammate got them.
2023 Participants:
• Connor Hellebuyck, WPG
• Juuse Saros, NSH
• Igor Shesterkin, NYR
• Stuart Skinner, EDM
• Ilya Sorokin, NYI
• Logan Thompson, VGK
• Linus Ullmark, BOS
• Andrei Vasilevskiy, TBL
• Alex Carpenter
• Emily Clark
• Rebecca Johnston
• Hilary Knight
• Sarah Nurse
In addition to the three debuting events, the All-Star Skills Competition also features four returning classics.
UPPER DECK NHL FASTEST SKATER
This event sees the participants timed as they sprint a full lap around the rink. Each player chooses which direction they want to skate and can position themselves a maximum of three feet behind the start line located on the penalty box side of the centre line. The player begins skating on the referee’s whistle and the clock begins when they cross the start line.
There are two rounds: a preliminary round and a final round between the two skaters with the fastest preliminary-round times.
Recent winners and times:
Jordan Kyrou, 2022: 13.550 seconds
Mathew Barzal, 2020: 13.175
Connor McDavid, 2019: 13.378
Connor McDavid, 2018: 13.454
Connor McDavid, 2017: 13.310
Dylan Larkin, 2016: 13.172 (all-time record lap)
2023 Participants:
• Dylan Larkin, DET
• Kirill Kaprizov, MIN
• Cale Makar, COL
• Chandler Stephenson, VGK
• Andrei Svechnikov, CAR
• Kevin Fiala, LAK
GEICO NHL HARDEST SHOT
This popular event is straightforward: grip it and rip it. Each participant gets two attempts to shoot a puck that’s placed 30 feet from the goal line as hard as they can into the net. Players can skate up to the puck from within the blue line to gain momentum. Shot speed is measured by radar equipment and recorded in miles per hour.
Recent winners and shot speeds:
Victor Hedman, 2022: 103.2 mph
Shea Weber, 2020: 106.5 mph
John Carlson, 2019: 102.8 mph
Alex Ovechkin, 2018: 102.8 mph
Shea Weber, 2017: 102.8 mph
Shea Weber, 2016: 108.1 mph
Shea Weber, 2015: 108.5 mph
All-time record:
Zdeno Chara, 2012: 108.8 mph
2023 Participants:
• Rasmus Dahlin, BUF
• Seth Jones, CHI
• Josh Morrissey, WPG
• Alex Ovechkin, WSH
• Elias Pettersson, VAN
HONDA NHL ACCURACY SHOOTING
Another classic event returns but this time with a slight twist. The opening round is the typical version of this event with the shooter positioned 25 feet from the goal line receiving passes from alternating sides of the net. Participants are timed while attempting to hit Styrofoam targets 15 inches in diameter placed in the four corners of an empty net.
The timer stops when all four targets have been hit and the four players with the fastest times advance to the semi-final round.
For the semi-final and final rounds there will be two nets with corner targets positioned side by side on the goal line. One passer is beside each net sending pucks to the shooter (again positioned 25 feet from the goal line). In this round, the shooters shoot simultaneously. If any matchup ends in a tie the players will re-shoot. The winner is the player who records the fastest time in the final round.
Recent winners and times:
Sebastian Aho, 2022: 10.937 (4/4)
*Jaccob Slavin, 2020: 9.505 (5/8)
David Pastrnak, 2019: 11.309 (4/4)
Brock Boeser, 2018: 11.136 (4/4)
Sidney Crosby, 2017: 10.73 (4/5)
John Tavares, 2016: 12.294 (4/5)
Patrick Kane, 2015: 13.529 (4/4)
*fifth target added to middle of net
2023 Participants:
• Aleksander Barkov, FLA
• Leon Draisaitl, EDM
• Kevin Hayes, PHI
• Jack Hughes, NJD
• Nazem Kadri, CGY
• Nikita Kucherov, TBL
• Connor McDavid, EDM
• Brock Nelson, NYI
• Artemi Panarin, NYR
• Vladimir Tarasenko, STL
GREAT CLIPS NHL BREAKAWAY CHALLENGE
This is where fans can see some added creativity from several of the sport’s most skilled forwards. Each skater attempts a breakaway starting from anywhere in the neutral zone and judged by a panel who will rate each creative shot attempt on a scale from 1-10, similar to the NBA Slam Dunk contest.
Former Florida Panthers fan favourite and recent Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Roberto Luongo will be on hand as the night’s celebrity goaltender, plus two future first-ballot HOFers will team up for a tandem attempt.
2023 Participants:
• Mitchell Marner, TOR
• David Pastrnak, BOS
• Matthew Tkachuk, FLA
• Alex Ovechkin, WSH/Sidney Crosby, PIT (teaming up)
• Roberto Luongo (celebrity goalie)