Three Vancouver Canucks are aiming to win a million dollars in the 2024 NHL All-Star Skills Competition. So far, Elias Pettersson has taken an early lead.
The third event of the night was one of the toughest: the Passing Challenge, featuring tiny targets that players had to hit on the fly. Some of the best players in the NHL struggled with the event, including Nikita Kucherov, who leads the entire league in points. He finished in last place in the event, hitting just a couple of targets for five points.
J.T. Miller also struggled, getting seven points, with Pettersson quipping, "Somehow, it'll be my fault." Quinn Hughes did better, playing it safe by mostly aiming for the mid-sized targets, which were worth two points, compared to the smallest targets, worth three. He finished with 15 points, which finished sixth among the 11 competitors.
Pettersson, however, made the difficult event look remarkably easy. He hit target after target, hitting mostly three-pointers with a few two-pointers mixed in. That included going three-for-three with his final three passes on the tiniest target.
"Well, I was more battling with my nerves to start," said Pettersson after the event. "I almost fell down at the end there but yeah, I got the win, I'm happy."
Happy is right: Pettersson's smile after winning the event lit up the entire competition.
Surprisingly, Pettersson didn't take the Hardest Shot competition, which he won last year with a 103.2 mph slap shot. He said that he and J.T. Miller had a side bet going.
"I'll do my best, we got a little bet with Miller, so I'd like to win that one too," said Pettersson.
Miller won that particular bet, hitting a 102.34 mph slap shot, beating Pettersson's best at 98.4 mph.
That blast by Miller is, unless I'm mistaken, the third-hardest shot ever by a forward in the history of the Skills Competition. It still finished second, however, to Cale Makar, who stunned not just the crowd but his fellow players with a 102.56 mph slap shot, barely edging out Miller for the win.
