Pastrnak Dominates Accuracy Shooting

SAN JOSE, Calif. - David Pastrnak, admittedly, was a bit nervous on Friday night.
Having been off the ice for five days for the Bruins' by week, the first-time All-Star did not have much time to practice for his inaugural crack at the Accuracy Shooting competition during NHL All-Star Skills at SAP Center.
"It was tough sitting around all day, barely touched a puck," said Pastrnak, who led off the event. "Obviously with the bye week, didn't know what to expect coming back on the ice."

And after missing with his initial two shots, Pastrnak figured he could be in for a long night. It turned out to be anything but.
Pastrnak's aim quickly recovered, as the Black & Gold's leading scorer hit on five of his next six shots - including the final four in a row - to clock in with a winning time of 11.309 seconds, just behind the record for five targets (11.136 seconds) set by Vancouver's Brock Boeser last year in Tampa Bay.
"After [my] first shot, I was like, 'Oh, that can't be good'…a week off, didn't see myself hitting anything under 20 seconds," said Pastrnak, who clipped Pittsburgh's Kris Letang by over a second (12.693). "Really happy with my time…soon as I hit the first one, I kind of got confident."

The 22-year-old became the first Bruin to win the event since 2000 when Ray Bourque hit four targets on five shots (the format back then was to hit the targets in as few shots as possible). Bourque won the event a record eight times, including seven with the Bruins.
"Just grabbed the puck, didn't really look at it," said Pastrnak, when asked if he followed Bourque's strategy of settling the pucks before shooting. "I knew the targets were gonna be switching. I didn't know how fast. I just kept my head on the target.
"You have some spots on the net you like to shoot. I was hoping it was gonna start up top, but it started on the bottom. After the first shot, I didn't know what to think."
Pastrnak did, however, cost himself a bit of money with the victory. The winners of each contest were awarded $25,000, but a friendly wager with New York Islanders forward Mathew Barzal will leave his pockets a little lighter.
"I had dinner with Mathew Barzal [on Thursday] and we made a deal. We shook hands on splitting the money, whoever wins," said Pastrnak. "While I was doing this, I didn't even think about me winning. [Was thinking] maybe he's gonna win [fastest skater], he's pretty fast…I kind of lost, half to Mathew Barzal."

The complete results:
David Pastrnak, Boston: 11.309
Kris Letang, Pittsburgh: 12.693
Drew Doughty, Los Angeles: 13.591
Joe Pavelski, San Jose: 14.423
Blake Wheeler, Winnipeg: 18.585
Nikita Kucherov, Tampa Bay: 19.706
Kyle Palmieri, New Jersey: 20.209
Auston Matthews, Toronto: 31.256
Zdeno Chara's record of 108.8 MPH in the hardest shot competition, set in 2012, stood for another year, as Washington's John Carlson won the event with a speed of 102.8 MPH. Here's a complete rundown of the night's results:
HARDEST SHOT
John Carlson, Washington: 102.8
Brent Burns, San Jose: 100.6
Seth Jones, Columbus: 99.4
Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay: 96.2
FASTEST SKATER
Connor McDavid, Edmonton: 13.378 (three wins in a row)
Jack Eichel, Buffalo: 13.582
Mathew Barzal, New York Islanders: 13.780
Miro Heiskanen, Dallas: 13.914
Elias Pettersson, Vancouver: 13.930
Cam Atkinson, Columbus: 14.152
Kendall Coyne, Team USA: 14.346
Clayton Keller, Arizona: 14.526
PUCK CONTROL
Johnny Gaudreau, Calgary: 27.045
Patrick Kane, Chicago: 28.611
Claude Giroux, Philadelphia: 30.270
Mark Scheifele, Winnipeg: 32.161
Gabriel Landeskog, Colorado: 33.425
John Tavares, Toronto: 35.210
Jeff Skinner, Buffalo: 35.407
Elias Pettersson, Vancouver: 43.622
SAVE STREAK
Jimmy Howard, Detroit: 2
Braden Holtby, Washington: 2
Pekka Rinne, Nashville: 2
John Gibson, Anaheim: 3
Marc-Andre Fleury, Vegas: 6
Devan Dubnyk, Minnesota: 7
Andrei Vasilevskiy, Tampa Bay: 8
Henrik Lundqvist, New York Rangers: 12
PREMIER PASSER
Mikko Rantanen, Colorado: 2:17.379
Erik Karlsson, San Jose: 1:58.824
Roman Josi, Nashville: 1:47.128
Keith Yandle, Florida: 1:34.611
Ryan O'Reilly, St. Louis: 1:25.897
Thomas Chabot, Ottawa: 1:40.568
Sebastian Aho, Carolina: 1:18.530
Leon Draisaitl, Edmonton: 1:09.088