NHL All-Star Game 2023

Story posted February 3, 2023 in

The best in the game will face off in Sunrise, Florida on Feb. 4 for the NHL All-Star Game. Here’s everything you need to know about the event:

Skills Competition

The Skills Competition will be held on Feb. 3 with three new Florida-unique events. The Tendy Tandem is the goalie shootout, with goalies working in tandems to shoot on each other. In the Splash Shot, players will try to hit a target on a dunk tank and sink their opponent. The Pick n’ Puck is a hockey/golf hybrid on a par-4 golf course.

There will still be the classics, like Fastest Skater, Hardest Shot, Breakaway Challenge and Accuracy Shooting.

The Metro

Alex Ovechkin (WSH), Sidney Crosby (PIT) and Johnny Gaudreau (CBJ) line out the veterans of the Metro’s All-Star squad, one that is filled with first-time and second-time appearances.

Jack Hughes (NJD) will make his second ASG appearance.

The entirety of the rest of the roster is making their inaugural appearance. Igor Shesterkin, Adam Fox and Artemi Panarin (NYR) will all bring their talents to Florida, and Shesterkin will share Metro goalie duties with Ilya Sorokin (NYI).

The Metro is the most competitive division in hockey, and these guys are sure to bring some all-star level talent down to Sunrise.

The Atlantic

The Atlantic is a bit more seasoned but suffered more injuries.

Nikita Kucherov and Andrei Vasilevskiy (TBL) will both be making their fourth ASG appearances. Kucherov is tied for third in the league with points.

The Tkachuk brothers will also make their appearances, with Matthew (FLA) making his second and Brady (OTT) with his third.

Linus Ullmark (BOS), the best goalie in the league right now, will make his first appearance. Ullmark leads the league in goals against average, save percentage and wins, and is the frontrunner for the Vezina.

Additionally, Rasmus Dahlin (BUF) will replace injured teammate, Tage Thompson, as Buffalo’s representative. Thompson left Feb. 1’s game with an upper-body injury.

Aleksander Barkov (FLA) will replace Toronto’s Auston Matthews, who is out for at least three weeks with a knee injury.

With Ullmark in goal and the power of Dahlin, the Tkachuks and Kucherov bring to the Atlantic, the Atlantic is prepared to take on the All-Star Game.

The Central

The Central has some vets on the roster, but this roster, like the Metro, is full of young guns.

Jason Robertson (DAL) has stolen the show in Dallas this year and leads the team in goals and points. Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen represent Colorado and have a combined 60 goals and 160 points among the three of them.

Connor Hellebuyck (WPG) is second in the league in wins and save percentage and is on the goalie spot alongside Nashville’s Juuse Saros.

The Pacific

The Pacific has some great all-star players, like Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl (EDM), who are first and second in the league in points, and Erik Karlsson.

Bo Horvat (VAN), who was traded to the New York Islanders on Jan. 30, will represent the West in the 3-on-3 but will wear the Islanders reverse retro in the Skills Competition.

Additionally, with Matty Beniers injured after a hard hit, there are no Kraken in the All-Star Game. Vegas’s Chandler Stephenson replaced Beniers, which gives Las Vegas two players on the roster.

The NHL All-Star Game will be played at 3 p.m. on Feb. 4.

Adrianna Gallucci is a first-year student majoring in journalism. To contact her, please email amg7989@psu.edu.