NHL SuperSkills Challenge Lineup

[HedleyLamarr]

Take this for what it's worth......

The NHL released the lineups for tonight's Skills Competition.

PUCK CONTROL RELAY

Daniel Briere, Tomas Kaberle, and Martin St. Louis will team up for the East. Martin Havlat, Lubomir Visnovsky, and Teemu Selanne will go for the West. In the individual races, Jay Bouwmeester will represent the East, opposing 2004 champ Rick Nash.

FASTEST SKATER

Eric Staal, Brian Campbell, and Alexander Ovechkin will skate for the East, while Patrick Marleau, Bill Guerin, and Andy McDonald will roll for the West. Ovechkin and Marleau would have to be the favorites.

SHOOTOUT PART ONE

They're apparently replacing the Breakaway Relay with three separate rounds of four-person shootouts. The East's first group will include Brendan Shanahan, Simon Gagne, Eric Staal, and Daniel Briere. They'll shoot against Marty Turco.

Facing Cristobal Huet will be the West's Nicklas Lidstrom, Bill Guerin, Jonathan Cheechoo, and Patrick Marleau.

HARDEST SHOT

Brian Rafalski, Dany Heatley, Sheldon Souray, and Zdeno Chara will shoot for the East, while Philippe Boucher, Joe Thornton, Nicklas Lidstrom, and Dion Phaneuf will represent the West.

Souray, Chara, and Phaneuf would have to be the favorites. But Boucher is a serious darkhorse.

SHOOTOUT PART TWO

The second East group would feature Marian Hossa, Martin St. Louis, Justin Williams, and Sidney Crosby against Miikka Kiprusoff. The second West group will have Martin Havlat, Teemu Selanne, Andy McDonald, and Rick Nash facing Martin Brodeur.

SHOOTING ACCURACY

Simon Gagne, Eric Staal, Marian Hossa, and Brendan Shanahan will shoot for the East, while Jonathan Cheechoo, Joe Sakic, Yanic Perreault, and Joe Thornton will go for the West. Smart money is on Shanny.

IN THE ZONE

Once again, this is LCS Hockey's old "Pyramid of Doom" drill, with three shooters facing a goaltender.

Three groups of shooters for each conference. Daniel Briere, Eric Staal, and Brian Campbell will face Marty Turco. And then the NHL is saying Sidney Crosby, Marian Hossa, and Brian Campbell will go against Miikka Kiprusoff, but I find it hard to believe Campbell will go twice. So that might be a mistake. (I'm guessing it'll be Traitor Fifteen) The third group will have Vincent Lecavalier, Alexander Ovechkin, and Jay Bouwmeester shooting on Roberto Luongo.

The first Western group will feature Yanic Perreault, Rick Nash, and Ed Jovanovski against Cristobal Huet. Group two will have Brian Rolston, Ryan Smyth, and Kimmo Timonen facing Martin Brodeur. The last set will have Joe Thornton, Jonathan Cheechoo, and Dion Phaneuf against Ryan Miller.

SHOOTOUT PART THREE

The third and final round will have Dany Heatley, Vincent Lecavalier, Jason Blake, and Alexander Ovechkin against Roberto Luongo. The West will go with Joe Sakic, Ryan Smyth, Brian Rolston, and Joe Thornton against Ryan Miller.

ONE-ON-ONE SHOOTOOUT

The night will end with one shooter from each squad taking a breakaway worth three points in the overall standings. Teemu Selanne will face Ryan Miller for the West. And for the East, it will be none other than Sid the Kid against Roberto Luongo. That's good stuff.

[Shumway]

Gagne in the accuracy drill, eh? He'll win if they put a set of pads in each spot rather than a target, he'll shoot it right in there I'm surprised St. Louis isn't in the fastest skater, actually, although I guess if you're in the handling drill, you can't go in the fastest skater.

Here are my picks, assuming they still give points for the individual winner and the group average:

Puck Control Relay: West takes the relay, Bouwmeester takes the individual

Fastest Skater: Patty Marleau, East takes the group average

Hardest Shot: Sheldon Souray, West takes group

Accuracy: Sakic, West wins group

Shootout:

East: 6

West: 5

In the Zone: I don't remember how this event works, but I'll say 2-2 tie(if each line gets 1 shot)

Goalie: I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Christobal Huet, East takes the group

Final Shot: Selanne Scores, Sid does not

So, assuming they keep the same kind of scoring, I've got the West winning on the stick of Teemu Selanne

[-Helix-]

No trick shot addition?

Still think a trick shot competition would be sweet. Especially with the skill these guys have. Imagine what they could do. It could be the highlight of the night.

And they could get celebrities to judge them like the NBA does the slam dunk contest.

[HedleyLamarr]

I bet we'll see a lot of ultra-fancy penalty shots tonights, since these aren't taking place during a game.

Someone will have the courage to pull off a Malik-type shot tonight....

[Sproullie03]

Not a big fan of having Crosby in a shootout i am pretty sure he has gone 0 for the season and 2 for his career

[Lee.]

well then, thank CHRIST it doesn't really count for anything tonight.

[NJTank]

Oh brother the clock is broke for the fastest skater and tehy are using a stop watch

[jkrdevil]

Why did they put Brian "wrist shot" Rafalski in the hardest shot competition? I think he only clocked in the 80's.

[-Helix-]

Meh. I thought we'd see more fancy schmancy stuff in the shootouts the way they were hyping it.

Oh well - still entertaining.

Thought the youngstars game was hilarious though. Malkin's such a cherrypicker.

[KevinMcD]

It looked like all the players were cherrypicking and the Defense was letting them score they didn't even go for the puck half the time.

[whitedawg22]

I'm not a huge hockey follower, but after watching about 10 minutes and 3 goals of the YoungStars game, I can say that the effort was borderline criminal. I mean, it made the NBA All-Star Game look like the Final Four. Players on defense were letting passes go right by, and I'm pretty sure that the only guys breaking a sweat were the goalies.

If the NHL wants to win fans back, having its top young talents completely loaf through its midseason showcase isn't the way to do it.

[Breakwood]

I'm not a huge hockey follower, but after watching about 10 minutes and 3 goals of the YoungStars game, I can say that the effort was borderline criminal. I mean, it made the NBA All-Star Game look like the Final Four. Players on defense were letting passes go right by, and I'm pretty sure that the only guys breaking a sweat were the goalies.

If the NHL wants to win fans back, having its top young talents completely loaf through its midseason showcase isn't the way to do it.

I agree that was a boring game for sure. I couldn't stand it and ended up doing some reading, that was more entertaining then that game.

[Squeaks4]

I'm not a huge hockey follower, but after watching about 10 minutes and 3 goals of the YoungStars game, I can say that the effort was borderline criminal. I mean, it made the NBA All-Star Game look like the Final Four. Players on defense were letting passes go right by, and I'm pretty sure that the only guys breaking a sweat were the goalies.

If the NHL wants to win fans back, having its top young talents completely loaf through its midseason showcase isn't the way to do it.

I agree that was a boring game for sure. I couldn't stand it and ended up doing some reading, that was more entertaining then that game.

Double agreed. What the hell is up with this game? (A west-coaster just now watching it) I have had it on for only about 5 minutes and have seen at least 7-10 break aways (sometimes even 2 on 0 & 3 on 0)...I am honestly a little confused on what is going on.

It's honestly hard to watch it's that bad.

[jkrdevil]

I'm not a huge hockey follower, but after watching about 10 minutes and 3 goals of the YoungStars game, I can say that the effort was borderline criminal. I mean, it made the NBA All-Star Game look like the Final Four. Players on defense were letting passes go right by, and I'm pretty sure that the only guys breaking a sweat were the goalies.

If the NHL wants to win fans back, having its top young talents completely loaf through its midseason showcase isn't the way to do it.

What do you really want them to do? Hockey suffers from the same problem the NFL has with the Pro Bowl and that is the sport is a conduct sport and the All Star game (and Young Stars Game) is an exibihition in which players don't want to get hurt. The result is you get absoultly no physical game and the game becomes lackluster. For my money I think baseball has the best All-Star Game and that's because it is the one the mostly resembles a regular game.

Unfortunatly the powers in hockey are steering the regular game in the direction of a less physical game even though the physical play is what drives the game and creates the excitement.

[Shumway]

Man, my picks were way off

[spyboy1]

We here in Minnesota were hoping Brian Rolston would be in the hardest shot competition, but no luck.