NHL All-Star Skills Competition results: Ovi Jr. shines in Breakaway Challenge, Elias Pettersson wins Hardest Shot

By | February 3, 2023
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Get your radar guns ready. The 2023 NHL All-Star Skills competition is set for tonight. 

The league’s best players are gathered in South Florida for the 2023 All-Star Weekend. Among the biggest names at the event include Connor McDavid, Mitch Marner, Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon.

There are seven total events at the 2023 All-Star Skills night: Fastest Skater, Hardest Shot, Breakaway Challenge, Accuracy Shooting, Tendy Tandem, Pitch ‘n Puck and Splash Shot. The latter three are all new events for this year. 

Two players have a chance at getting their second title in the same skills event. Ovechkin is competing in the Hardest Shot, which he won back in 2018. Dylan Larkin is also looking to claim his second Fastest Skater win after finishing with the best time in 2016.

MORE: Watch the 2023 NHL All-Star Game on fubo TV: Sign up today!

The Sporting News has all the updates and highlights from the 2023 NHL All-Star Skills night. 

2023 NHL All-Star Skills results, highlights

In total, there were seven events at the 2023 NHL All-Star Skills competition.

Four of these challenges have been around for years, which included the Fastest Skater, Breakaway Challenge, Accuracy Shooting and Hardest Shot. 

New this year were the Splash Shot, Pitch ‘n Puck and Tendy Tandem. 

Fastest Skater: Andrei Svechnikov races to win

Final

Player Time (seconds)
Andrei Svechnikov 13.699
Kevin Fiala 14.114

Svechnikov beat his time from the first round to claim the 2023 Fastest Skater competition. Fiala finished with a slower time than his first lap. 

Round 1

Player Time (seconds)
Andrei Svechnikov 13.757
Kevin Fiala 13.997
Chandler Stephenson 14.197
Dylan Larkin 14.558
Cale Makar 22.304
Kirill Kaprizov Did not race

Svechnikov and Fiala finished with the two top times in Round 1, so those two advanced to the final. Makar wiped out on his attempt and Kaprizov ended up not participating in the event. 

Breakaway Challenge: Ovechkin, Crosby and Ovi Jr. win judges over

Player Score
Alex Ovechkin/Sidney Crosby 40
David Pastrnak 38
Matthew Tkachuk 33
Mitch Marner 21

You want a cheat code to winning the judge’s over? Bring out a kid to score a goal. 

That’s what Ovechkin and Crosby do. The two longtime rivals teamed up for the Breakaway Challenge and brought out a small surprise, Ovechkin’s 4-year-old son, Sergei.

Ovi Jr. went down on the 3 on 0 with his dad and Crosby, and snuck the puck across the goal line, much to love and appreciation from the judges, who gave it a perfect score of 40. 

Marner came out with the Miami Vice drip, donning an all-white suit. He teamed up with Luongo on the first attempt. Luongo made the stop on the breakaway attempt, but the judges aren’t impressed, as they gave three 5s and a 6.  

Pastrnak channeled his inner Adam Sandler, dressing up as Happy Gilmore for the competition. With some help from his “caddy” Linus Ullmark, he tok Gimore’s patented slap shot drive before opting to go for two “putts” getting the puck into the open net. 

The judges loved it, as Pastrnak received three 10s and an 8. 

To wrap up the Breakaway Challenge, Matthew Tkachuk teams up with his brother, Brady, for the tropical theme, bringing out the sunglasses and beach chairs. 

With appearances from Luongo, Barkov and Dolphins defensive lineman Christian Wilkins, Tkachuk uses his skills to bounce the puck on his stick before flipping up, catching the puck in his hat and slapping the shot by Luongo. 

Accuracy Shooting: Brock Nelson finishes first

Final

Player Placement
Brock Nelson 1st 
Nazem Kadri 2nd

Nelson was the most consistent shooter, and he defeated Kadri to win the Accuracy Shooting event. 

Semifinals

Player Placement
Connor McDavid 2nd
Nazem Kadri 1st

McDavid went 4 for 4 again on the Accuracy Shooting, but he took too long on his final attempt and Kadri snucks his fourth one in before McDavid. 

Player Placement
Artemi Panarin 2nd
Brock Nelson 1st

Nelson once again remained calm, cool and collected and beat out his division rival to advance to the final. 

Round 1

Player Time (seconds)
Connor McDavid 9.497
Brock Nelson 12.156
Artemi Panarin 13.235
Nazem Kadri 13.459
Nikita Kucherov 18.147
Kevin Hayes 22.377
Vladimir Tarasenko 25.062
Aleksander Barkov 25.297
Jack Hughes 32.324
Leon Draisaitl 36.956

McDavid, Nelson, Panarin and Kadri all advanced to the final with the four best times. McDavid went 4 for 4 and finished under 10 seconds to move on. All four hit the targets in under 15 seconds. 

Hardest Shot: Elias Pettersson powers his way to victory

Player Speed (mph)
Elias Pettersson 103.2
Rasmus Dahlin 102.3
Josh Morrissey 96.7
Alex Ovechkin 95.1
Seth Jones 94.7

Pettersson wins the Hardest Shot competition for 2023. He hit over 100 mph in both of his attempts, hitting 101 on the first attempt and then 103.2 on his second.

He is only the fourth forward to win the Hardest Shot event and first to do so since Sergei Fedorov in 2002. 

Tendy Tandem: Connor Hellebuyck, Juuse Saros win event

Player Points
Juuse Saros/Connor Hellebuyck 13
Logan Thompson/Stuart Skinner 11
Linus Ullmark/Andrei Vasilevskiy 9
Igor Shesterkin/Ilya Sorokin 6

The tandem of Saros and Hellebuyck combined to defeat Thompson and Skinner in their Tendy Tandem head-to-head, and totaled the most points to win the event.

The Central goalies finished first thanks to Hellebuyck stopping every shootout attempt and Saros securing points on his shooting attempts, including getting three points by successfully getting in the hole. 

Splash Shot: Cale Makar, Mikko Rantanen claim dunk tank event

Final

Team Time (seconds)
Mikko Rantanen/Cale Makar 18.7
Adam Fox/Igor Shesterkin Did not finish

Makar and Rantanen are crowned the first winners of the Splash Shot event. Makar wasted no time, taking just 18 seconds to knock down all the targets and dunk Fox into the tank. Shesterkin, with a goalie stick, came close, but could not knock down all the targets in time. 

Round 1

Team Time (seconds)
Adam Fox/Igor Shesterkin 26.5
Matthew Tkachuk/Brady Tkachuk Did not finish

Fox was able to finish hitting all the targets in 26.5 seconds to dunk Matthew Tkachuk. The younger Tkachuk brother, Brady, was unable to hit all the targets in time, leaving Shesterkin dry and out of the water tank. 

Player Time (seconds)
Mikko Rantanen/Cale Makar 25.5
Sidney Crosby/Nathan MacKinnon Did not finish

Rantanen finished in 25.5 seconds, dunking Crosby on the final target. MacKinnon was unable to get all the targets down in time, keeping Makar out of the dunk tank. 

Pitch ‘n Puck: Nick Suzuki wins golf/hockey hybrid event

Player Score
Johnny Gaudreau 3 strokes
Clayton Keller 4+ strokes
Jason Robertson 4+ strokes
Nick Suzuki 4+ strokes

After all four players took two shots to get on to the green, Suzuki wins the event by being the only playing to score a birdie, knocking the ball in on three shots. 

What time is the 2023 All-Star Skills competition?

  • Date: Friday, Feb. 3
  • Time: 7 p.m. ET

The 2023 skills competition is set to start at 7 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 3. 

The event is expected to run three for three hours. 

What channel is the 2023 NHL All-Star Skills competition on?

  • U.S.: ESPN
  • Canada: Sportsnet, TVA Sports

Fans in the United States can watch the All-Star Skills competition on ESPN. 

The crew on the broadcast for the event is John Buccigross, Brian Boucher, AJ Mleczko, Emily Kaplan, Kevin Weekes and PK Subban. 

For those viewers in Canada, Sportsnet and TVA Sports will be broadcasting the action live. 

How to stream the 2023 NHL All-Star Skills competition

  • U.S.: fuboTV, ESPN+, ESPN app
  • Canada: SN NOW 

Fans looking to stream the NHL All-Star Skills competition can do so through fuboTV (which offers a free trial), ESPN+, or the ESPN app. 

For viewers in Canada, SN NOW is the place to stream the contests. 

Where is the 2023 NHL All-Star Weekend?

This year’s All-Star Weekend will take place at FLA Live Arena down in Sunrise, Fla., home of the Panthers. 

It is the second time the NHL has played the All-Star Game in South Florida, as the Panthers previously hosted the event in 2003.

The 2021 event was initially planned to take place in Florida, however, it was canceled due to COVID. 

2023 NHL All-Star Skills odds

All odds provided by Sports Interaction

Fastest Skater 

Player Odds
Dylan Larkin +250
Cale Makar +298
Chandler Stephenson +349
Kirill Kaprizov +452
Andrei Svechnikov +554

Hardest Shot 

Player Odds
Alex Ovechkin +298
Seth Jones +360
Rasmus Dahlin +363
Elias Pettersson +366
Josh Morrissey +391

Accuracy Shooting

Player Odds
Connor McDavid +446
Leon Draisaitl +553
Nikita Kucherov +602
Jack Hughes +641
Aleksander Barkov +655
Artemi Panarin +698
Nazem Kadri +800
Vladimir Tarasenko +900
Kevin Hayes +1100
Brock Nelson +1100

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