The NHL All-Stars served up plenty of fun and games at Saturday's Skills Competition.
I have been a fan of All-Star Weekend ever since Vancouver hosted the game back in 1998. It was the first year of "North America vs. The World," which was dumb, but the weekend itself was still a ton of fun. I loved having all the game's best players tearing it up in town and letting their personalities show—in a time before social media when they had a lot more leeway off the ice.
Our game did happen near the beginning of the Dead Puck Era, and coaches Jacques Lemaire and Ken Hitchcock kept the score of the main game to a relatively tame 8-7 for Team North America, but Teemu Selanne was named MVP for the losing squad thanks to his hat trick for the World team.
Click here to take a look at the box score and rosters from that game. Team North America included everybody from Gretzky to Lindros to Keith (father of Matthew) Tkachuk, while Selanne's World teammates included Pavel Bure, Nicklas Lidstrom, Mats Sundin and—yep—Jaromir Jagr.
Jagr didn't play a very big part in this year's Skills Competition, but his legend did. P.K. Subban decided to dress up as Jagr for his second attempt in the breakaway relay, with hilarious results.
Style points also need to be awarded to Brent Burns for taking his personal style to its logical conclusion:
Each participant in the breakaway relay got two turns. Burns used his first one to set up a give-and-go with his son Jagger and Joe Pavelski's son Nathan, facilitated when our old pals Luongo and Schneider engaged in a mock fight for the net, harkening back to old times...
The two tykes were far from shy in their post-shot interviews. I liked the part where Lil Pavelski declared "I'm captain for my games" and proudly showed off the "C" on his jersey. Don't tell me that the captaincy hasn't been an issue in San Jose....
Schneider and Luongo wore microphones during the event and Luongo also joined with Glenn Healy to score the breakaway challenge events, showing plenty of wit along the way.
As for Daniel, his saucer passes were impressive—as were his three kids down on the ice with him during the event.
Given his notoriously poor performance in shootouts, I wasn't surprised to see Luongo get the better of him during the breakaway relay.
Daniel wasn't alone. Luongo was outstanding as he helped the Eastern Conference earn the win.
The pressure was on Shea Weber to break Zdeno Chara's record for Hardest Shot in front of the hometown fans, but he came up just short. Young Dylan Larkin dazzled in the Fastest Skater, though—winning his heat with ease before beating the old record set by Mike Gartner in 1996, though not without controversy—Gartner's lap started from a dead stop, while Larkin was permitted to start further back and gain speed before he crossed the start line.
So—on to the 3-on-3 tournament today, which starts at 2 p.m. Pacific Time.
If you want to watch more skills, the AHL is holding its Skills Competition today at 5 p.m. Pacific, with TV coverage on Sportsnet.
Click here to see the complete list of participants and activities.
Canucks prospect Hunter Shinkaruk is taking part in three events: Fastest Skater, Pass and Score and the Breakaway Relay.
The AHL schedules its All-Star festivities one day later than the NHL, in part so that the league can still squeeze in some weekend games. The Comets went 2-0 with wins over Albany on Friday and Rochester on Saturday. Mike Zalewski is fired up after his recent call-up to the Canucks—he scored the game-winning goal and was named first star in both games thanks to a pair of goals on Friday and two goals and an assist on Saturday night.
Hunter Shinkaruk leads the Comets with 17 goals and 32 points and has already surpassed his 31 points in 74 games in his rookie season but Zalewski is gaining on him. He now has 12 goals and 22 points, tied with Brendan Gaunce for third place in team scoring.
A couple of other quick notes on Canucks prospects around the college hockey world before I wrap up today:
Boeser's on track to become the first freshman in more than 20 years to lead UND in scoring.
Also...
Demko's eighth shutout of the season ties Cory Schneider for the single-season record at Boston College.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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