Juuse Saros Scores Goalie Goal to Win at 2023 NHL All-Star Skills

Nashville Predators goaltender Juuse Saros and his Winnipeg Jets counterpart Connor Hellebuyck set aside their in-season rivalry on Friday night to capture a win for the Central Division at the 2023 NHL All-Star Skills presented by DraftKings Sportsbook at FLA Live Arena, in Sunrise, Fla.
Highlighting the competition this year were three new events, including the Discover NHL Tendy Tandem, an innovative netminding skills test.

Eight goaltenders participated in the event, with one goalie from each division designated the shooting goalie and one the in-net goalie. The shooting goalies earned three points by scoring an ice-length goal through a cardboard five-hole and two points for hitting the net. The in-net goalies then faced rushes of three, two or one player(s), based on the number of points earned by the shooting goalie in their tandem.

Saros and Hellebuyck, both trying to be deferential to each other's wishes, took nearly two hours to determine who would be the shooting goalie and who would be in net. Finally, Saros broke the ice and admitted to his counterpart that he would prefer to shoot. That was fine by Hellebuyck, who admittedly wanted to show off and "maybe get some puck marks" on the new pads he had gotten for the event.
"Last summer I had an injury so I couldn't really do anything else for a month other than shoot," Saros said. "So [my shot's] gotten a little better."
Saros also felt confident in his shooting ability after watching former Predators goalie Pekka Rinne, who famously scored in a 5-2 win at the Chicago Blackhawks on Jan. 9, 2020.
"I was just trying to remember how he used to do [it]," Saros said with a smile.

The Central and Pacific Divisions faced off against one another, followed by the Atlantic against the Metropolitan. Elite women's hockey players Alex Carpenter and Hilary Knight of Team USA, along with Emily Clark, Rebecca Johnston and Sarah Nurse of Team Canada, joined the fun as rush shooters in the event.
Saros scored one goal and hit the net once, and Hellebuyck stopped all five rushes he faced. The Central Division duo came out on top with 13 points, beating out the Pacific Division's Logan Thompson (Vegas Golden Knights) and Stuart Skinner (Edmonton Oilers), who had 11 points.
"It took a while to figure it out," said Saros, who missed wide of the net three times before sinking his three-point shot. "It was a little complicated at first when they explained it. But once we got the hang of it, it was fun."

The Atlantic Division's Andrei Vasilevskiy (Tampa Bay Lightning) and Linus Ullmark (Boston Bruins) came in third in the competition with nine points, while the Metropolitan Division tandem of reigning Vezina Trophy winner Igor Shesterkin (New York Rangers) and Ilya Sorokin (New York Islanders) was last with six points.
While it remains to be seen whether the Tendy Tandem will return for future All-Star skills competitions, Hellebuyck enjoyed the "bragging rights" as a member of the winning duo and said he would compete in the event again. So would Saros, but he would still want to be the shooter.
"That part was fun," he said, grinning.

The 2023 NHL All-Star Game, which will be broadcast live on ABC, is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 4 at FLA Live Arena in Sunrise, Fla. For the latest updates on Saros and his participation in the events, please visit NashvillePredators.com and follow @PredsNHL on all social media channels.