SUNRISE, Fla. – Sidney Crosby was dunked in a water tank, Nick Suzuki potted a golf ball with a hockey stick, and the NHL made hockey an outdoor sport of its own show skills in South Florida.
Two new events out in the sun highlighted the league’s annual skill contest at All-Star Weekend, where a handful of players take turns hitting golf and hockey shots on a par-4 course and others shooting pucks at foam surfboards to defeat opponents with the beach in the background.
At the Florida Panthers’ home arena Friday night, Connor McDavid reminded fans and the world’s other top players why he leads the NHL in goals and is on track to tally 60+ goals. won by Brock Nelson of the New York Islanders.
“I wanted to show that I could do other things,” McDavid said. “I wanted to do something to show that I can shoot the puck a little bit.”
One of the biggest stars of the evening was Alex Ovechkin’s 4-year-old son, Sergei, who joined his father’s and his father’s long-time rival Crosby in the breakaway challenge against Hall of Fame goaltender Roberto Luongo, the only Player with his number, retired by the Panthers to score.
Montreal captain Nick Suzuki won the pitch ‘n puck golf tournament at nearby Plantation by beating Arizona’s Clayton Keller, Dallas’ Jason Robertson and Columbus’ Johnny Gaudreau by making a birdie putt with his hockey stick missed
“That’s my first birdie of the year, so I’ll take that,” Suzuki said.
Seven months after winning the Stanley Cup together, Colorado’s Cale Makar and Mikko Rantanen won the “Splash Shot” event, which saw many pucks sail into the sea off Fort Lauderdale Beach.
After winning the Norris Trophy for Best Defenseman and the Conn Smythe for Playoff MVP, Makar joked, “This one just tops it all I think. There’s no debate, that’s definitely the one I’ve been looking forward to.”
Rantanen dove into Crosby, the three-time Pittsburgh Penguins Cup winner, who volunteered to take the plunge in the 5ft tank and came up with the idea of hosting the event with his good friend and colleague Nathan MacKinnon of Cole Harbour , Nova Scotia.
“I knew I was in trouble when Rantanen played 3 for 3 on the first three shots. I knew I was going to get wet,” Crosby said. “I didn’t realize I was going to be verbally abused and dunked for 20 minutes. I had imagined it a little differently, but it was still fun.”
Crosby acknowledged some technical difficulties at the event as the foam surfboards failed to fall when MacKinnon hit them. That was just one of the reasons to try something new outside, which the NHL wanted to do after last year’s event in the Bellagio’s famous fountains on the Las Vegas Strip.
“We wanted to do a few things out there to give that Florida feel,” said Steve Mayer, the NHL’s senior executive VP and chief content officer. “We knew we had to be outside when we came to Florida and we knew it was a risk. At an event like this, which as you can imagine doesn’t come cheap, you (accept) a little risk. If we are in a rainy week this is a disaster. But it was worth the risk and it’s worth being out there.”
The outdoor events fared better and generated more excitement than many of the indoor developments. The event’s slow pace, a listless atmosphere in the arena with a low-energy audience with many empty seats, and some odd moments like Boston’s David Pastrnak doing a “Happy Gilmore” impression, prompted criticism on social media.
Anaheim’s Trevor Zegras, one of the cover athletes of the NHL 23 video game, who made for the culmination of last year’s skill contest by scoring a spinning goal while blindfolded, tweeted a sleeping emoji. Golfer Brad Fritsch posted: “Guess I can delete the @NHL skill contest recording? I hear things are… not good.”
Canada’s ice hockey star Sarah Nurse, who shares the cover with Zegras, made for one of the best on-ice moments of the evening by scoring against reigning New York Rangers Vezina Trophy winner Igor Shesterkin, using the move made famous by Hall of Famer Peter Forsberg in helping Sweden win gold at the 1994 Olympics.
Carolina’s Andrei Svechnikov won the fastest skater competition with a lap of 13.69 seconds. The biggest moment of the event wasn’t Svechnikov’s victory, but Makar’s victory as he tried to run around the net. Makar said afterwards that he was fine.
Nashville’s Juuse Saros and Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck won the new “Tendy Tandem” event, in which goaltenders from the same division took turns shooting at the net from the opposite end of the court and trying to save. Saros hit the hole cut in the middle of the net and celebrated like he’d scored in a real game, like former Predators teammate Pekka Rinne – the last to do so in the NHL in January 2020 .
Vancouver’s Elias Pettersson won the hardest-hitting contest at 103.2 mph, giving the Canucks a rare victory in a tough season that saw them fire their coach and lose 29 of their first 49 games.
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Follow AP Hockey writer Stephen Whyno on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SWhyno
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