The NHL Tried To Ruin The Skills Competition By Bringing Technology Into It

I’m not a big All Star guy. I don’t rail against them by any means, I just think that when you’re a kid they’re amazing because of the spectacle of all these great players in one place but then you grow up and you realize they’re all on vacation, hungover and or drunk, and they don’t really care so the game isn’t great.

But, I’ve always loved the skills competition because I think it does a good job exemplifying just how many things every player has to be good at. The NFL has kinda picked up on it recently but that’s obviously more specialized, the NHL is everyone doing everything. Speed, puck control, shooting accuracy and speed, passing, etc. You gotta do it all.

The accuracy shooting is my favorite part probably because I remember watching Bourque win it in 93 and me and my dad celebrated like we just won the Cup, because we didn’t have much to celebrate those days. Well now the NHL went and RUINED it. I might sound like an old asshole, and if I do I don’t apologize, but get this technology out of the sport. Throw it in the trash with the offsides review. The styrofoam targets were as iconic a part of the skills comp as Al Iafrate’s hair and now we’ve gotta deal with the stupid virtual look. And it’s not even solely based on the aesthetic aspect of it, they also don’t work…

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It can’t even be debated that an exploding plate looks a hundred times cooler that some virtual confetti but I was losing my mind watching the thing. Pucks would miss a target by ten feet and it would fall, they’d hit it center mass and it would defiantly stand and even spit back at the contestant. It was stunning. Bring back the plates next year or else. You’ve been warned, NHL.