Article content continued

On Saturday, it’s all about the competition.

There are no teams and confusing point systems. No jokes. Just six events — three old and three new — that will determine who has the hardest shot, who has the most accurate shot, who is the fastest skater, who is the most adept stickhandler, who is the most accurate passer, and which goalie is the best at stopping the top players in the league on a breakaway.

Photo by Dave Sandford / Getty Images

To make sure everyone takes it seriously, the winner of each event gets US$25,000, plus bragging rights of being able to legitimately say they are the best at that particular skill. It’s like the NBA’s three-point contest or the home run derby in baseball — and something the NHL should have done a long time ago.

“We wanted to go back to honouring guys for their skills,” said Steve Mayer, the NHL’s chief content officer.

“We want to build some rivalries. We want to find guys who want to be the fastest skater or who’s the best stickhandler, and this is the first step towards that. We are using only all-stars this year, but who knows, maybe in the future we’ll look at bringing other players in.”

It’s Mayer’s mission to make the All-Star Game something we start caring about again.

In that regard, he’s got quite the challenge. It’s not just the NHL — all all-star games and the accompanying skills competitions are a tough sell because the players often don’t try their hardest. Even when they do, it amounts to a night of watching player after player taking shots against hanging targets or skating alone around the rink while being timed.

For the casual fan, it can be downright boring.