Eric Staal’s squad of superstars bested Detroit’s Nicklas Lidstrom’s gang for at least one night, as Team Staal won the SuperSkills competition Saturday, 33-22. The highlights of the night:
-Michael Grabner beat Taylor Hall in two separate races (they skated against each other in the preliminary and championship rounds) to win the Fastest Skater title.
-On an interesting note, Carolina’s Cam Ward and Boston’s Tim Thomas took part in the first ever goalie race. Ward won easily after Thomas tumbled around his first turn.
-Alexander Ovechkin won the Breakaway Challenge for the third consecutive time. P.K. Subban tried to win over the home crowd by wearing the jersey of Carolina’s Jeff Skinner, but it didn’t work out.
-Daniel Sedin absolutely destroyed the competition in the Accuracy Shooting, needing just nine shots to hit his eight targets
-Team Lidstrom won some points back in the Relay, one of the few highlights for his squad.
-Zdeno Chara set a new record in the Hardest Shot with a blistering 105.9 mile per hour blast. Shea Weber gave him a good run at 104.8.
-Corey Perry won the Elimination Shootout, besting Martin St. Louis. With his team down double digits, St. Louis could have kept shooting as long as he scored to cut Lidstrom’s deficit down, but he failed in the third round.