Friday night came with plenty of success for the Colorado Avalanche and its three NHL All-Star members. All three ended with a victory in some fashion by the end of the event.
Nathan MacKinnon participated in the challenges of One-Timer, Passing, Stick Handling, and Accuracy Shooting. Meanwhile, Cale Makar was in the Fastest Skater, Passing, Hardest Shot, and Accuracy Shooting challenges. Finally, Alexandar Georgiev was in the net for the 1-on-1 challenge to try and win $100,000.
First up for the Avs’ No. 29, he found his success in the One-Timer challenge. Just as fans in Colorado know, he took care of business on his one-time shots from his usual spots in the near circle. He earned 23 points, just enough to edge out the Boston Bruin’s David Pastrnak after a review, funny and typical for the league.
Secondly, Makar’s win on the night came on the Hardest Shot challenge. In a fan-favorite event, he smoked the competition – quite literally – with the hardest slapshot of the evening. Both of his shots recorded over 100 miles per hour (MPH), with the winner being 102.56 MPH.
Lastly, Georgiev’s lone performance came with great success. It may not have seemed like it, as he was picked last to face none other than the great Connor McDavid from the Edmonton Oilers. With McDavid running away with the win, he was shut down by his opposite.
Georgiev saved nine of McDavid’s 11 shots in the 1-on-1 challenge, just enough to beat out the Dallas Stars’ Jake Oettenginer and Florida Panthers’ Sergei Bobrovsky, both saving eight of 10 shots – with the latter netminder facing MacKinnon. Plus, Georgiv saving a handful of shots from McDavid helped send Makar to the final round with his several poke checks.
With all three participating in the 1-on-1’s, Georgiev won out with the extra $100K in his pocket – although Bowen Byram might try and claim some of it down the line with the rest of the defensemen. Byram’s wish for Makar to win the skills competition fell short in the final obstacle course behind none other than McDavid, who walked away with the $1 million grand prize. MacKinnon’s bid ended in the 1-on-1 challenge with Bobrovsky only letting him score twice, causing his elimination.
Even though Makar or MacKinnon didn’t walk away with the grand prize, both were great all night. MacKinnon showed he cared and wanted to compete, unlike his counterpart looking to take the Hart Trophy away from him, Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Makar was oh-so-close to showing why he is arguably the best player in the league, just losing out to McDavid who helped rebuild the new skills competition – basically his own playground to win on.
Today is the day when the All-Star Game and Tournament wraps up a great weekend in Toronto. The Central Division has never won the competition before, and MacKinnon and company will be looking to do so with the likes of the Pittsburgh Penguins Sidney Crosby, Minnesota Wild’s Kirill Kaprizov, and more. Catch it all on ABC and ESPN+ at 1:00 p.m. MT.