From Feb. 1 to 3, Toronto hosted the annual National Hockey League (NHL) All-Star Weekend for the first time since 2000. This year included celebrity coaches such as Justin Bieber and Tate McRae, a revamped skills competition, a player draft and even the inaugural Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) showcase.
All-Star Thursday
All-Star Weekend began on Thursday, Feb. 1 with the first player draft since 2015. In the draft, each of the four teams picked 11 players from the available all-stars. Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov was picked first overall by Team Hughes, who was co-captained by Vancouver Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes and his brother, New Jersey Devils forward Jack Hughes. Meanwhile, Nathan MacKinnon and Sidney Crosby, two Cole Harbour, N.S natives, were reunited. Tomas Hertl, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Frank Vatrano and Vincent Trocheck, the last four players in the draft, were each given an envelope by Hall of Famer Dave Keon with their respective teams for Saturday’s game.
The PWHL All-Star Showcase was held on Feb. 1, where the best players faced off in a 3-on-3 game. During the game, Ella Shelton, a defenseman for PWHL New York, scored the opening goal of the event, much like she did in the inaugural PWHL game between Toronto and New York. Yet, the game belonged to Savannah Harmon, as she scored a hat trick and factored in on each of her team’s goals, helping her team to a 5-3 victory.
“It gets better and better every year,” said Kendall Coyne Schofield, forward for PWHL Minnesota, about being on the same stage as the NHL. Coyne Schofield made history in 2019 when she became the first woman to compete in the NHL All-Star Skills competition.
“Here today we’re representing the league we’ve always dreamed of … To be able to come out to that full building was pretty surreal,” said Coyne Schofield in a press conference.
Furthermore, All-Star Thursday gave us the potential soundbite of the weekend. Following the player draft, Michael Bublé had some fun with the media, as the five-time Grammy winner jokingly said he was microdosing on mushrooms during the event. Bublé served as celebrity captain for Team Hughes.
“My buddy told me this is just a microdose of mushrooms and he was lying,” said Bublé. “I thought I was in Blades of Glory for most of the time I was out there.”
Skills Competition and All-Star Game
On Friday, the skills competition took place in a revamped format. Usually, a certain number of players would take part in each event. This year, the NHL picked ten players and then held a fan vote to determine the remaining 12 players who would participate. Each participant would earn points based on their performance in each of the events, with the top eight moving on to the next round. From there, the top six would move on to the final round, where they faced off in an obstacle course.
In the end, Connor McDavid won the skills competition, earning twenty-five total points and taking first place in the fastest skater, accuracy shooting, stickhandling and obstacle course events. McDavid also took home the $1 million prize.
The actual All-Star Games took place on Saturday. In the first game, Team McDavid defeated Team MacKinnon 4-3, thanks to Boston Bruins forward David Pastrnak scoring a shootout goal against his teammate, Jeremy Swayman.
In the second game, Team Matthews edged Team Hughes 6-5 in a shootout. However, the weekend ended with Team Matthews destroying Team McDavid 7-4 in the finals, thanks in part to the performance of Clayton Keller and Auston Matthews. The former U.S. National Team Development Program teammates combined for six points and Matthews was named the MVP.
“The whole weekend in itself was special for all of us, especially the host city and the hometown guys,” said Matthews after the game on Saturday.
“Nice to cap it off with a win. Everyone goes home happy.”
Dobson Overlooked
With every All-Star game, the debate surrounding players snubbed from the event always arises. This year, there was one noticeable omission from the festivities — New York Islanders defenseman Noah Dobson. From a statistical standpoint, the Summerside, P.E.I. product is having a career year as Dobson registered six goals and forty-six assists before the All-Star break, good enough for top scorer on the Islanders, third in defensemen in points, and tied for second in assists.
