NEW YORK -- The game's most dazzling shootout artists will attempt to wow the voting public in the Scotiabank NHL Fan Fav Breakaway Challenge and the classes of 2007-08 and 2008-09 will battle for youthful supremacy when NHL All-Star Weekend gets underway with the 2009 Honda/NHL All-Star SuperSkills Competition Saturday night, Jan. 24, at Montreal's Bell Centre.
The realigned NHL YoungStars Game presented by Upper Deck and the fan-judged Scotiabank NHL Fan Fav Breakaway Challenge will join SuperSkills mainstays such as the Bridgestone NHL Fastest Skater, McDonald's NHL Accuracy Shooting and Cisco NHL Hardest Shot competitions to determine the League's best in various disciplines. The evening will culminate with the best hockey players in the world doing what they've done to end practices ever since shortly after their parents first tied their skates: engage in an elimination shootout contest that won't end until there's only one man left unstopped.
To open the evening, four of the League's speedsters will take the Bell Centre ice in an attempt to beat
Mike Gartner's 13-year-old record for the fastest (13.386 seconds) circuit of an NHL rink in the Bridgestone NHL Fastest Skater.
The stopwatches then get pocketed and the imaginations get set free when six of the NHL's most creative players try to win the votes of fans by performing feats of puck-handling and goal-scoring wizardry in the Scotiabank NHL Fan Fav Breakaway Challenge. With full access to the entire offensive zone, each shooter gets one minute to complete as many attempts as possible at a routine that ends with a shot on goal. Once all six skaters have performed, fans will vote by mobile text message to determine the winner.
Next up, the top young players in the game will take center stage in the sixth NHL YoungStars Game presented by Upper Deck. This year, for the first time, the non-stop, wide-open game of three-on-three will pit NHL sophomores against rookies.
After the League's sharpshooters pick corners in the McDonald's NHL Accuracy Shooting, the boomers will blast away in the Cisco NHL Hardest Shot in an attempt to break the record set by Al Iafrate with a 105.2-mph slap shot at the 1993 NHL All-Star Weekend in Montreal.
Finally, all 36 skaters and six goalies will play the time-honored game of hockey survivor -- the Gatorade NHL Elimination Shootout. The six All-Star goalies will conduct a random draw to select the six shooters each will face in the first round. Only the shooters who score will advance. The competition will continue until a round is completed in which only one shooter scores.
The 2009 NHL All-Star Weekend in Montreal will celebrate the
Montreal Canadiens' Centennial season with live national broadcasts of the Honda/NHL SuperSkills event on Saturday, Jan. 24, and the NHL All-Star Game on Sunday, Jan. 25, on CBC and RDS in Canada and VERSUS in the United States. NASN, ASN, J Sports, Sky Mexico, Fox Sports Australia and other NHL international broadcast partners will provide live coverage of both the Honda/NHL SuperSkills event and the NHL All-Star Game to more than 150 countries and territories in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, the Pacific Rim, Mexico and the Caribbean. NHL Radio will provide exclusive, national radio coverage which can be heard on stations around the United States and Canada as well as on Sirius XM Radio's NHL Home Ice, located at XM channel 204 and on SIRIUS channel 208 with the "Best of XM" programming package. NHL.com and NHL Network will provide extensive coverage of the All-Star Weekend.
NHL ALL-STAR SKILLS COMPETITION RESULTS, 1990-2008
Fastest Skater
2008
Shawn Horcoff 4.395 seconds*
2007
Andy McDonald 14.030 seconds
2004
Scott Niedermayer 13.783 seconds
2003
Marian Gaborik 13.713 seconds
2002
Sami Kapanen 14.039 seconds
2001
Bill Guerin 13.690 seconds
2000
Sami Kapanen 13.649 seconds
1999
Peter Bondra 14.640 seconds
1998
Scott Niedermayer 13.560 seconds
1997
Peter Bondra 13.610 seconds
1996
Mike Gartner 13.386 seconds
1994
Sergei Fedorov 13.525 seconds
1993
Mike Gartner 13.510 seconds
1992
Sergei Fedorov 14.363 seconds
* revised format
Hardest Shot
2008
Zdeno Chara 103.1 mph
2007
Zdeno Chara 100.4 mph
2004
Adrian Aucoin 102.2 mph
2003
Al MacInnis 98.9 mph
2002
Sergei Fedorov 101.5 mph
2001
Fredrik Modin 102.1 mph
2000
Al MacInnis 100.1 mph
1999
Al MacInnis 98.5 mph
1998
Al MacInnis 100.4 mph
1997
Al MacInnis 98.9 mph
1996
Dave Manson 98.0 mph
1994 Al Iafrate 102.7 mph
1993 Al Iafrate 105.2 mph
1992
Al MacInnis 93.0 mph
1991
Al MacInnis 94.0 mph
1990 Al Iafrate 96.0 mph
Elimination Shootout
2008
Dion Phaneuf
Shooting Accuracy
2008
Tomas Kaberle 4 hits, 5 shots
2007
Eric Staal 4 hits, 5 shots
Marian Hossa
2004
Jeremy Roenick 4 hits, 4 shots
2003
Jeremy Roenick 4 hits, 6 shots
2002
Jarome Iginla 4 hits, 6 shots
Markus Naslund
2001
Ray Bourque 4 hits, 6 shots
2000
Ray Bourque 4 hits, 5 shots
Viktor Kozlov
1999
Ray Bourque 4 hits, 6 shots
Jeremy Roenick
Keith Tkachuk
1998
Ray Bourque 4 hits, 6 shots
Peter Forsberg
B. Shanahan
1997
Ray Bourque 4 hits, 7 shots
1996
Mark Messier 4 hits, 4 shots
1994 B. Shanahan 4 hits, 5 shots
1993
Ray Bourque 4 hits, 4 shots
1992
Ray Bourque 4 hits, 4 shots
1991
Mark Messier 4 hits, 6 shots
1990
Ray Bourque 4 hits, 7 shots
Breakaway Challenge
2008
Alex Ovechkin