The NHL's All-Star Skills event went down in San Jose on Friday night and served as the official kick-off party to the 2019 All-Star weekend. As usual, the skills event proved to be a fun and loose party that held some surprises and highlights. Let's run through the standout performers and moments from the event.
Fastest skater: Connor McDavid
To nobody's surprise, Connor McDavid won for the third straight year, clocking in with a lap of 13.378 seconds. But it was USWNT star and gold medalist Kendall Coyne who stole the show when she became the first woman player to participate in the Skills event when she stepped up to replace Nathan MacKinnon.
Coyne, 26, absolutely crushed her run and finished with a final time of 14.346 -- good enough to beat one of the guys. She topped Arizona Coyotes forward Clayton Keller (14.526).
Coyne is just 5-foot-2 but she was able to reach a top speed of 22 MPH during her run. It was impressive as hell.
Kendall Coyne with absolute wheels pic.twitter.com/FMXWxZs4hu
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) January 26, 2019
Puck Control: Johnny Gaudreau
We got another repeat winner with Calgary Flames' winger Johnny Gaudreau, who went back-to-back in the Puck Control portion of the night. Gaudreau narrowly edged out Patrick Kane with what was essentially a perfect run, even in the challenging lacrosse-style obstacle.
The control is simply remarkable, @johngaudreau03. #NHLAllStar pic.twitter.com/axGEkJzezz
— NHL (@NHL) January 26, 2019
Save Streak: Henrik Lundqvist
Henrik Lundqvist won the Save Streak competition with 12 straight saves, nearly matching Marc-Andre Fleury's top mark (14) from last year. The best save may have come from Andrei Vasilevskiy, though.
Eight saves is the number to beat. pic.twitter.com/nmyPHgIhWA
— NHL GIFs (@NHLGIFs) January 26, 2019
The best streak-ruiner? This goal from Thomas Chabot.
And @ThomasChabot1 is a defenseman... 😳 #NHLAllStar pic.twitter.com/hC4WI7t2Sl
— NHL (@NHL) January 26, 2019
And the luckiest save? This one.
This is the highlight of the save streak event pic.twitter.com/7x9hGCjr6V
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) January 26, 2019
But Lundqvist also won the award for most preposterous jacket lining on the red carpet Friday with this Godfather-themed creation.
Henrik Lundqvist's suit has The Godfather lining, complete with movie quotes.
— Cristina Ledra (@cledra) January 26, 2019
Says he's a fan of the movie, especially the characters. #NHLAllStar pic.twitter.com/25MqzfhPxX
Premier Passer: Leon Draisaitl
Leon Draisaitl made his first All-Star appearance on Friday night after grabbing the Last Man In vote, and he grabbed some hardware to go along with it. The Oilers forward took top honors in the precision passing event on Friday, but you're actually the real winner if you managed to stay awake during this entire event without falling asleep. (It seems to successfully drain all energy from the event every year, and this year was no exception.)
Just kidding, the actual real winner was USA gold medalist Brianna Decker, who apparently beat everyone with an unofficial time in her pre-event demonstration.
Brianna Decker completed the passing competition demonstration in 1:06 smashing NHL all star winner Leon Draisaitls time of 1:09 🔥
— Alyssa (@alyssastweeting) January 26, 2019
Hardest Shot: John Carlson
John Carlson did his best to wake everyone up from their post-passing event nap with a monster clapper in the Hardest Shot event. The Caps defenseman took home the crown with a 102.8 MPH bomb, which wasn't quite enough to top Zdeno Chara's record (108.8) but it was enough to match Shea Weber's number from two years ago. Anytime you can put your name next to Weber's in the hardest shot category that's pretty impressive.
102.8 mph of straight @JohnCarlson74 🔥🔥🔥. #NHLAllStar pic.twitter.com/dz3i70lvXV
— NHL (@NHL) January 26, 2019
Accuracy Shooting: David Pastrnak
First-time All-Star and Boston Bruins winger David Pastrnak took home the accuracy shooting crown in the night's final event. The 22-year-old went first and finished with a final time of 11.309.
Your 2019 Accuracy Shooting champion!@pastrnak96 | #NHLAllStar pic.twitter.com/FXhzWA2gqG
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) January 26, 2019
Though his round didn't go so well, Auston Matthews managed to score major points with the hometown crowd when he took off his own jersey to unveil a tribute to former Sharks great (and his current Leafs teammate) Patrick Marleau.
Pretty neat move by Auston Matthews to rep Marleau in San Jose pic.twitter.com/jzpzUmG7oF
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) January 26, 2019