Hardest Shot: Weber does it again

MONTREAL - He's done it again: Shea Weber is the man with the NHL's hardest shot.

The Canadiens captain, making his seventh appearance at the All-Star Game in St. Louis, blasted the competition away with a 106.5 mph rocket in his second attempt at the Skills Competition on Friday. Weber had already won the event by then, however, as his first shot clocked in at 105.9 mph, which was better than Washington Capitals defenseman John Carlson's 104.5 mph howitzer.

It marks the fourth time the hulking defenseman has won the competition, after previously taking the title in 2015, 2016, and 2017.

Given that Weber's personal best of 108.5 mph in 2015 is the closest to Zdeno Chara's record of 108.8 mph, event organizers decided to save the best for last and close out this year's Hardest Shot event with Weber. The Habs blue-liner admitted he was a bit anxious as his time to tee up came closer.
"Even leading up to it, everyone is expecting you to do well, possibly get higher than before. There were definitely a little bit of nerves to go with it," admitted Weber, who boasts 215 goals on his NHL resume. "And as they kept shooting, the score just kept getting higher and higher. I was hoping it wouldn't be as high, just to feel more comfortable."

In typical Weber fashion, the 34-year-old defenseman was rather subdued when asked to describe how it felt to come out on top once again.
"Not bad. There was obviously good competition there," described Weber. "John and the other guys shot it quite hard, and I was just able to shoot a little bit harder."

Before Weber, Carlson, and those "other guys" - namely, the Canucks' Elias Pettersson, the Flames' Mark Giordano, the Lightning's Victor Hedman, and the Blue Jackets' Seth Jones - put their shot to the test, the League brought out Hardest Shot legend and former Blues and Flames star defenseman Al MacInnis to dust off the old wooden stick and see how he would fare.
The 56-year-old, a seven-time Hardest Shot winner, put a 100.4 mph shot on the board, and it was announced that for any shot that beat MacInnis', a $5,000 donation would be made to the charity of that player's choice.

Both of Weber's blasts soundly bested that of the 12-time All-Star's, and the Habs captain selected Do It For Daron - a youth mental health initiative launched in memory of assistant coach Luke Richardson's late daughter, Daron - as his beneficiary.

Weber wouldn't have minded giving the old-fashioned twig a try himself, and said he was touched to see the Blues alumni, including MacInnis, Brett Hull, Wayne Gretzky, Keith Tkachuk, and Bernie Federko, receive such a warm welcome by the St. Louis faithful throughout the evening.
"I asked him if I could use his wood stick to see if I could do it too," cracked Weber, who said he last played with one when he was 16. "It was a special night. A lot of the old Blues - it was cool - I watched a lot of those guys growing up, played against a couple of them."
Shortly after his fourth win, Weber was asked if he had anything to say to the brave opponents across the League who have ever had to face his powerful rocket of a shot. The Canadian-born rearguard was typically apologetic in his reply.
"Yeah. Sorry," he stated with a smile.

The 2020 Honda NHL All-Star Game takes place on Saturday starting at 8:00 p.m. ET. You can catch Weber and the rest of the NHL's All-Stars in action on CBC, Sportsnet, and TVA Sports on television.