When the NHL All-Star Skills Competition fell flat during the 2023 All-Star Weekend, it landed with a thud so hard it shook the league up. The pacing was slow, there was so much time to fill between events, and many of the events themselves (apart from the hardest shot, fastest skater and accuracy shootout) just didn't hit right, making hockey should never be—a total bore.
With 12 All-Stars selected to take part in the competition and guys gunning to win points for the events they took part in, we had an honest-to-goodness real competition to see who would win and, (most) guys went all-out to take home the title.
With the return of the key events and the addition of others like the one-on-one shootout—in which skaters picked which All-Star goalie they wanted to go against—a one-timer challenge, a passing accuracy challenge and an obstacle course, it proved to be a huge hit for everyone.
"I thought it was all pretty fun," Islanders forward Mathew Barzal said. "I was looking forward to the one-timer, because I thought that was interesting with the targets and it was a new event. I personally loved the format this year. I had a bunch of texts afterwards that it was pretty fun to watch."
