The NHL has announced the first-ever outdoor All-Star Game Skills Competition events. These will take place in Las Vegas this Friday.
The Fountains of Bellagio will host the NHL Fountain Face-Off. Eight participants will travel on boats to a “rink”, located in the fountains. The participants must shoot the pucks at five targets in the water within the shortest time possible, fighting through the spray from nearby fountains. Qualifying players advance to the head-to–head final.
Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson (three-time Olympic medalist) will participate in the event. The NHL is continuing its trend of encouraging more women to play in All-Star Weekend events.
Las Vegas NHL 21 and ’22 skills competition will close down a portion of Las Vegas Boulevard.
A full deck of large playing cards will be displayed on a rack. It is basically hockey-as blackjack. Players will attempt to make a hand equal to “21” with the fewest shots possible, without shooting pucks at them. The “Puck Shark” is the player who has won two rounds. It will be a 5-player field.
In addition to these events, the NHL All-Star skill competition will feature traditional indoor competitions at T-Mobile Arena, including Fastest Skater (for goalies), Save Streak, Hardest Shot, Accuracy shooting and the return of Breakaway Challenge. Breakaway Challenge is a trick shot competition where participants are given two shots and then a panel judges ranks them on a scale from 1-10.
The NHL has announced some guest stars for this year’s Breakaway Challenge. Anaheim DucksForward Trevor ZegrasThe skills competition will feature a skill contest for those who are not on the Pacific Division All-Star roster. Manon Rhéaume, the first woman to ever play in an NHL game, and actor Wyatt Russell will be the guest goaltenders for the event.
The individual winners of each event in the 2022 NHL All-Star Skills Competition will receive $30,000. The NHL Department of Player Safety will reveal the names of the participants later in this week.
Friday’s NHL All-Star Skills competition will take place at 7:30 pm. ET on ESPN. The NHL All-Star Game takes place on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. ET on ABC. Both events will take place at T-Mobile Arena.