U.S. Women's Olympic team demonstrates Skills Competition events

It's harder than they're going to make it look.

NHL players are the best in the world, so naturally, they're going to make the events in the 2018 GEICO NHL All-Star Skills Competition look relatively easy at Amalie Arena on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, SN, TVA Sports).
Don't be fooled. Three of the best women's hockey players in the world certainly won't be.
Meghan Duggan, Hannah Brandt and Hilary Knight, forwards on the U.S. Women's Olympic team that will compete in the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics next month, were on the ice with several local house league players Friday demonstrating events that will be featured in the Skills Competition.
Duggan, Knight and Amanda Kessel, who stayed off the ice Friday, will also be doing demonstrations of three of the events Saturday before the NHL all-stars compete.
"We're some of the best-skilled players in the world and to be recognized as demoing some skills at the NHL All-Star Weekend is pretty cool," Knight said.
Duggan, the United States captain, felt the pressure of trying to complete the Dunkin' Donuts NHL Passing Challenge, which involves hitting four targets that light up in random order, successfully completing a course of four give-and-go springboards, making saucer passes into four mini nets, and finally a long saucer pass into the big net.
She finished the course, but it was humbling.
"It's tough," Duggan said. "It's definitely passing accuracy, that's for sure. The hard part about things like this is, as you get going, the crowd gets into it, maybe you start thinking, 'Oh, I gotta get one,' there's tension, maybe you grip the stick too tightly. But it's fun. The guys in the NHL are so talented that they'll have no problem with it."
Brandt had arguably the hardest challenge because she demonstrated the Gatorade NHL Puck Control Relay.
After stickhandling through eight pucks laid out on the ice in a straight line and zig-zagging through eight cones in the neutral zone, she approached a series of four gates with three cut-out sections. She had to put the puck through the section that lit up before moving on to the next gate.
The lowest section is about two inches off the ground. The highest section was a few inches shorter than she is (5-foot-6).
"It's a little bit tricky," Brandt said. "It's something new, and none of the NHL players have ever done it before. It'll be interesting to see what creative ways they have to get through the gates."
Brandt said the one piece of advice she had for the NHL players would be to watch out for the lowest gate.
"Don't underestimate that bottom one," she said. "I probably got a little overconfident because that bottom one seems easy. It's trickier than you think."
Knight demonstrated the Honda NHL Accuracy Shooting, five LED targets that light up randomly for three seconds, giving the shooter enough time to hit the target before the next one lights up. The NHL has done away with the old Styrofoam targets to go more modern.
"The light-up ones are tough because it's telling you where to shoot, whereas, before as a shooter, you decided where you wanted to shoot the puck and you figured out your rhythm," Knight said. "It's hard to not have control of your own rhythm."
Knight did two runs. Her best time was 23.004 seconds, which blew away the house leaguers who were taking part in the rehearsal. The next best time was 32.520.
"I wasn't fast enough," Knight said, laughing.
By comparison, Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby had the fastest time in the accuracy shooting competition at the Skills Competition last season when he hit the four Styrofoam targets in 10.730 seconds.
New York Islanders center John Tavares was slowest at 26.800, but he also had the fastest time at the Skills Competition two years ago at 12.294 seconds.
"It's probably more exciting for the fans [to have the LED targets], because now you know where to look," Knight said. "You can follow the puck that way, because these guys shoot fast."
Competition aside, being included in the 2018 Honda NHL All-Star Weekend is a big deal for the U.S. Olympic team members, who have been training and living in the Tampa suburb of Wesley Chapel, Florida, since August and leave for South Korea on Wednesday.
Duggan called it an honor and said it is a sign of growth in the relationship between the NHL and the women's hockey community.
"It's a no-brainer," she said. "We've been living here and training 25 minutes down the road, so I'm really happy that such a great opportunity got taken advantage of on both sides. Any time we can be involved with the NHL, we love it."