SuperSkills Info For NHL All-Stars Weekend!

I’m super excited for the SuperSkills event (yeah, it’s corny but deal with it, lol) on Saturday night at 7pm (it will be broadcast live on Versus, CBC, RDS and XM Radio)! 

There are seven events in the Dodge/NHL SuperSkills competition this season. Each event is worth at least two goals toward the team’s final score. Each All-Star must compete in at least one event, so fans of one particular player will not be shortchanged.

The conference that finishes the competition with the most goals will be declared the winner. In the event of a tie at the end of the competition, each team captain — Jarome Iginla of the Western Conference and Vincent Lecavalier of the Eastern Conference — will pick a goalie and alternating players to compete in a sudden-death shootout.

Here’s a list of the events:

Obstacle Course Relay:

Three skaters and a goalie will be on the ice at the same time. Each team will do the relay twice, and each time they’ll have 45 seconds to complete the course.  The players will take turns completing the different legs of the course but my favorite is going to be the fourth leg when “the goalie gets to stand between the faceoff circles and fire four shots down the ice to see if he can put the puck in the net.  The Goalie will be receiving passes from Player 3.”

More after the jump!

Fastest Skater

In the Fastest Skater contest, skaters will start at the goal line and race to the far blue line.

There will be three skaters per team and the contest consists of four head-to-head heats. The first three heats will pit one skater from the West vs. one from the East. The final heat is the skater from each conference with the fastest time.

The skaters will start at the goal line and race to the far blue line.

Elimination Shootout

It’s basically like the shootout you see when a regular-season game remains tied after overtime. Six shooters and all three goalies from each team will participate in this event, which is broken down into two rounds: Qualifying and Elimination.

In the Qualifying Round, all six shooters will get one shot and each goalie will face two shots. If a shooter scores he moves on to the elimination round.

How many shooters score in the Qualifying Round will determine the length of the Elimination Round. If a shooter scores, he continues on. The rounds will continue until only one player scores. The goalies will alternate rounds.

YoungStars Game

This game comprised of some of the NHL’s best rookies will be a 12-minute, 3-on-3 game broken down into two six-minute periods. There are eight rookies and one All-Star goalie on each side.

Defensemen Alexander Edler, Erik Johnson, Jack Johnson, and Matt Niskanen, plus forwards Sam Gagner, Patrick Kane, Peter Mueller and David Perron make up the Western Conference’s YoungStars. Blue-liners Tobias Enstrom, Kris Letang, Mike Lundin and Marc Staal plus forwards Nicklas Backstrom, Brandon Dubinsky, Dave Clarkson and Milan Lucic are the Eastern Conference YoungStars.

There are some unique rules in place, so pay attention:

There will be a faceoff to start each period, but that’s it because after goals the team that scored will concede the puck and retreat to the defensive side of center ice before they can turn around and attack again. If a team sends the puck into the stands, a new one will be given to the opposite team.

When the puck is frozen, all three players on the offensive team must clear the zone before they can attack. If a player goes in offsides, or ices the puck, his team will surrender puck possession.

The only time the clock will stop is if a penalty shot is awarded. Once the penalty shot is completed, the player and his linemates must clear the offensive zone for play to resume.

Accuracy Shooting

There are four targets inside of the net during the Accuracy Shooting event.

The shooter has 18 seconds to shoot up to 8 pucks at the four targets, each 15 inches in diameter.  The shooter will also have to stand 25 feet from the goal line and will receive passes from players stationed to the right and left of the goal posts.

Note – multiple hits on the same target will not increase the shooter’s score. Passes the shooter can’t handle are also considered attempts.

Hardest Shot

Four shooters from each team will participate in the Hardest Shot event.  Each player will get to take two shots (they must be on goal in order to count).

The puck will be placed 30-feet from the net between the hash marks. A shooter can take a skating start to build up power, but he has to start from the nearest blue line. Of the two shots, the one that travels the fastest will count for the shooter.

Breakaway Challenge

This event is brand new this year and is the only one with a panel of celebrity judges.  They will be evaluating each player’s attempt based on creativity, execution and ability to put the puck in the back of the net. They will award a score anywhere between one through nine to each shooter. An additional point is added to the score for any goal scored.

Three shooters and three goalies from each team will participate.

This should be interesting!!!