Islanders' Mathew Barzal is competitive in NHL's Skills competition, but Connor McDavid is the winner
The Islanders' Mat Barzal is seen during the NHL All-Star Skills competition Friday in Toronto. Credit: The Canadian Press via AP/Nathan Denette
TORONTO — Mathew Barzal laughed heartily at the suggestion that he and the Oilers’ Connor McDavid have developed a rivalry in the NHL All-Star Skills competition.
“I wouldn’t really call it a rivalry,” the Islanders All-Star said. “I just couldn’t edge him out today in any of the stuff.”
The Edmonton superstar won $1 million by placing first overall in the Skills event on Friday night at Scotiabank Arena in the middle day of the three-day All-Star Weekend. McDavid won four of the eight overall categories to finish with 25 points. The Avalanche’s Cale Makar was second with 20 points.
The three-on-three All-Star Game will be played Saturday afternoon. Barzal, Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin and Rangers forward Vincent Trocheck are on the team captained by Toronto superstar Auston Matthews.
Barzal, who was second going into the final event, stumbled in the obstacle course as he repeatedly missed hitting his shooting targets and finished with 13.5 points. Barzal nearly won the leadoff fastest skater event, clocking a lap in 13.519 seconds. But McDavid, skating last, won with a time of 13.408 seconds.
Barzal, a three-time All-Star, won the fastest skater event in 2020 in 13.715 seconds as he snapped McDavid’s three-season winning streak.
“I went first and then I’m watching him and the way he moves out there, it’s basically perfection,” Barzal said. “I knew I had a chance but kind of lost an edge there coming around the turn. But no, you watch him skate around the thing, he’s the best skater in the world.”
The Skills competition featured a revamped format this season as the 12 participants collected points in each event. The field was pared to eight for the penultimate event, a one-on-one shootout, and then to six for the final category.
Barzal, choosing from among three remaining goalies, opted to shoot against Shesterkin. Barzal earned six points in the event while Shesterkin’s former goalie partner, the Avalanche’s Alexandar Georgiev, earned $100,000 for making nine saves against McDavid.
“You’re picking among the best, so there’s no easy choice,” Barzal said. “It was more so he plays for the Rangers and I knew people back home would be watching. He obviously has a relationship with [Islanders goalie Ilya] Sorokin, so I thought it would be fun if I picked him for the New York fan base.”
Shesterkin, though, was less enthused with his role.
Does he enjoy the Skills competition? “Not really,” he said at Thursday’s media day. “Because I do not do anything.”
Trocheck was not selected for the Skills competition.
“Honestly, I didn’t think I’d be this tired,” Barzal said. “A couple of those events, the breakaways, killed me. Even the last one, I was out there for basically what felt like 20 minutes. Nah, it was fun. You do not expect to be huffing and puffing in three, four events.”
Notes & quotes: Forward Julien Gauthier, in the first season of a two-year, $1.575 million deal, was placed on waivers on Friday. Gauthier, 26, has five goals and four assists in 27 games and was a healthy scratch in the Islanders’ loss to the Panthers last Saturday . . . Benoit Desrosiers, 35, who served five seasons as Patrick Roy’s assistant in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League, was added to the Islanders’ coaching staff on Friday.
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
