Skateaway

Tonight the All Star bash, or at least the on ice portion of it, gets underway with the Youngstars game and skills competition. Tomorrow night the All Star game itself will be played. The events for the next 2 nights are on Versus, the Gary Bettman hockey network!

Eric Staal and Justin Williams will both be participating in the skills competition. Here is a listing of the exact competitions and rules. Skills Competition. According to the News and Observer this morning, Staal was reported to be participating in the breakaway relay, fastest skating, and shooting accuracy events. Williams was also to be in the breakaway relay. But it's reported by Kukla that they will both be in one of the several shoot out categories. Here's a break down of some events and participants according to a listing on Kukla's Korner. You need the most recent Adobe software to open the .pdf document.

1. Puck Control Relay

East: Briere, St. Louis, Kaberle.

West: Havlat, Selanne, Visnovsky

Individual East: Bouwmeester

Individual West: Nash

2. Fastest Skater

East: Staal, Ovechkin, Campbell

West: Marleau, Guerin, McDonald

3. Shootout #1

East: Shanahan, Gagne, Staal, and Briere, Against West Goalie-Turco

West: Lidstrom, Guerin, Cheechoo, and Marleau, Against East Goalie-Huet

4. Hardest Shot

East: Rafalski, Heatley, Chara, Souray

West: Boucher, Thornton, Lidstrom, Phaneuf

5. Shootout 2

East: Hossa, St. Louis, Williams, and Crosby, Against West Goalie Kiprusoff

West: Havlat, Selanne, McDonald, and Nash, Against East Goalie Brodeur

6. Shooting Accuracy

East: Gagne, Staal, Hossa, Shanahan

West: Cheechoo, Sakic, Perreault, Thornton

7. In the Zone

(seems to have almost everyone involved)

8. Shootout 3

East: Heatley, Lecavalier, Blake, and Ovechkin, Against West Goalie Luongo

West: Sakic, Smyth, Rolston, and Thornton, Against East Goalie Miller

9. One on One Shoot Out

East: Crosby versus Luongo

West: Selanne versus Miller

It should be a lot of fun! Good luck to Eric and Willie, I hope they both do well. I'll review some of the results and talk about other things tomorrow. Ciao!

Dire Straits