Belzile, Harvey-Pinard shine in Canadiens Skills Competition

MONTREAL - The Canadiens Skills Competition presented by RONA returned to the Bell Centre on Sunday for the first time since 2020.

Head coach Martin St. Louis' players participated in several notable events.
Among the highlights was the performance of Alex Belzile in the fastest skater event.
Belzile bested the competition by completing his lap in 13.744 seconds, just ahead of Johnathan Kovacevic.

Paul Byron's son, Brysen, also participated in the competition.
The youngster's time of just over 20 seconds earned him a well-deserved round of applause from the near-capacity crowd.

For his part, Rafael Harvey-Pinard was the most accurate shooter.
He went 4-for-4 on targets in just 9.311 seconds.

Harvey-Pinard edged Justin Barron, who also went 4-for-4 in 9.603 seconds.
Barron provided some stiff competition, but Harvey-Pinard was clearly up to the challenge.

Mike Matheson won the hardest shot event.
His blast of 100.9 mph was the best of the best.

Mike Hoffman and Chris Wideman made the highlight-reel with some sweet shootout moves to close the festivities.
Hoffman was super creative with this cool effort.

Wideman, meanwhile, took a page out of Nick Suzuki's playbook for his snipe.

When the event was over, the players took the opportunity to interact with fans by signing autographs and delivering some special gifts.

It really was a perfect day!