Viva Hockey Vegas

Skills Competition: Hockey’s biggest superstars will descend on Las Vegas for the NHL’s all-star extravaganza this weekend. Starting tonight, the NHL will host its skills competition.

Arguably, the skills competition is possibly more entertaining than the game itself and is something the fans are much more likely to have fun with. This year’s skills competition will already be that much more fun because it will be taking place in perhaps one of the loudest buildings in the NHL, the Golden Knights’ T-Mobile Arena. For the skills competition, fans can expect much of the same from previous years with the fastest skater competition, accuracy shooting, breakaway competitions, and likely some sort of relay event.

What the hockey world is buzzing about is the incorporation of a new event. This new event is already rumored to be taking place in the unique Bellagio fountains and it’s surely going to add some more excitement to this already exciting weekend. 

New York Rangers @NYRangers

Hello.

February 4th 2022

171 Retweets2,339 Likes

Rosters and Notable Omissions: While the NHL All-Star game is a celebration of the game’s best players, it’s also a discussion for some of the best omissions or snubs. When the All-Star game rosters were announced, there were a handful of missing players that outraged the hockey world. The first name that comes to mind is Nazem Kadri.

Kadri is having an amazing offensive year. His 60 points in 41 games has him playing at a 120-point pace over a full, 82 game season! Fortunately, Kadri was selected, along with Jake Guentzel, Steven Stamkos, and Troy Terry, but not until the NHL’s Last Man In selections. 

Alex Ovechkin came down with COVID-19 a few days ago and will miss this year’s All-Star game. Joining Ovechkin on the sidelines will be some notable names such as Adam Fox, Nathan Mackinnon, and Drake Batherson, who are all out of the game due to injury. Despite these omissions, the rosters are stacked with the next generation of NHL superstars, led by Connor McDavid, Auston Mathews, Kiril Kaprizov, Cale Makar, and Sebastian Aho. Most of the four teams that comprise the All-Star game rosters skew younger in terms of age and this should make for highly skilled and fast-paced games of 3-on-3 hockey.

What to Expect: It’s always hard to guess what will happen during the All-Star game. All-Star games are usually incredibly loose defensively and players try to spark some creativity in their attack by showcasing and doing things they normally would not get the chance to do in games. Unfortunately, Trevor Zegras won’t be in the All-Star game itself but he will be taking place in the skills competition, so expect him to work some of his wizardry there. What everyone is excited for to see play out is the skills competition that will utilize the Bellagio fountains.

Not only will it give the All-Star weekend some of that Vegas flair but it will also add some much needed creativity to a skills competition that has gotten a bit stale over the years. No matter what happens during the actual game, expect the Vegas crowd to really embrace the NHL during this All-Star weekend and fully cement itself as a true hockey town.

Links from the Rink

• The NHL Announces Player Assignments for the 2022 All-Star Game. Check them out here. 

• Find out which Flames player is playing the best hockey of his career in a contract year no less.

• This former female hockey playing legend and current scout for the Seattle Kraken recently released her first kids hockey book.

• 2024? This could be the year the next World Cup of Hockey takes place.

• A country that has come a long ways in the hockey world is Denmark. Now, both the men’s and women’s team will take on the Olympics.