The annual NHL All-Star Game was traditionally preceded by a master show, in which hockey players competed in competitions for speed, throwing power, and also demonstrated their skills in shootouts.

A total of seven different competitions were organized.

Some of them took place in the arena in the city of Sunrise, and the other - on the beach of Fort Lauderdale and golf courses in the Sunshine State.

At the same time, Russia was represented by nine players, which had never happened before in history.

And one of the main events was the return of Alexander Ovechkin, who for various reasons missed the last three stellar weekends.

The captain of "Washington" was entered in the competition for the power of the throw and the best bullet, and in total, the Russians were represented in all types, except for one.

Without domestic hockey players, only an impromptu golf championship took place, where the athletes had to throw the puck into the hole.

Montreal forward Nick Suzuki took first place ahead of Johnny Gordo, Clayton Keller and Jason Robertson.

The master show was opened with a competition in speed, where two Russians were originally supposed to perform.

But for unknown reasons, Kirill Kaprizov did not go on the ice, leaving Andrey Svechnikov alone.

At the same time, his opponents were more than serious.

Among them were Kevin Fiala and Chandler Stevenson, as well as reigning Stanley Cup winner Cale Makar and former Stanley Cup winner Dylan Larkin, who ran a lap of 13.172 seconds in 2016.

But this time, the Detroit forward failed to repeat his result.

Larkin failed to break through the grandmaster mark and covered the distance in 14.558 seconds, while Makar completely fell at the entrance to the turn and dropped out of the fight.

With the rest, Svechnikov dealt with more than confidently.

Ultimately, he was the only one out of 14 seconds (13.699) and took first place by a solid margin.

Thus, the Carolina striker became only the second Russian to win this competition.

Previously, it was won twice by Sergei Fedorov, who had no equal in 1992 and 1994.

As for Ovechkin, he failed to repeat his achievement and win the throwing power competition for the second time in his career.

After the “click” of the leader of the Capitals, the puck reached a speed of 153.05 km / h, which allowed him to take only the fourth line.

Higher up were defensemen Josh Morrissey (154.01) and Rasmus Dahlin (164.63), while Vancouver forward Elias Pettersson (166.08) was first.

At the same time, the performance of the Russian was seriously spoiled by a miss in the first attempt.

However, Alexander rehabilitated himself in the shootout competition, where he won for the fourth time in his career.

It is worth recognizing that the Russian to some extent used a forbidden technique, because he was helped not only by his eternal rival and one of the best hockey players in the history of Sidney Crosby, but also by his son Sergei, who appeared on the ice in the form of "Washington" with the eighth number and signature Ovi Jr.

The three of them played a combination, which was completed by the young Ovechkin, who conquered the jury members.

After that, neither David Pastrnak in the image of Lucky Gilmore from the popular film, nor Mitchell Marner with Matthew Tkachuk could argue with him.

Other domestic players were not so lucky.

The closest to success was Igor Shesterkin, who, together with Adam Fox, participated in the Splash Shot contest.

One representative of each team took a place above the water tanks, while the other two took turns throwing at the targets.

Their task was to hit all seven targets and thereby knock out the platform from under the enemy's feet, forcing him to take an icy shower.

At the same time, if the tandem that spoke first had unlimited time to complete the task, then the second one had to surpass its achievement.

As a result, the partners in the Rangers reached the final, where they were defeated by competitors from the Avalanche.

Makar had 18.7 seconds to close all the targets and send Fox into the water, while Shesterkin managed to knock down only five surfboards in the allotted time and thereby helped Rantanen avoid the fate of Adam.

However, Igor still deserves praise, because he was the only goalkeeper who agreed to play in this competition.

Shesterkin was also announced for a special competition for goalkeepers, where Ilya Sorokin was his partner.

Representatives of two teams went out on the ice: one had to throw at other people's goals from the limits of the trapezoid, and the other did not allow one or more opponents to hit their own goals.

At the same time, the number of opponents was determined based on how tagged his competitor was.

If he hit a small hole in the panel that was on target, then the goalkeeper had to meet with three field hockey players, while a miss limited the number of opponents to one.

The competition lasted more than 20 minutes and was not the most successful.

At least, according to the American columnist for The Athletic, Sean Gentyll, who harshly criticized the idea of ​​the organizers.

As a result, only two outfield players were able to leave the goalkeepers out of work - Nathan McKinnon and the champion of the Games in Beijing as part of the Canadian women's team Sara Nurse, and Juuse Saros from Nashville and Connor Hellebike from Winnipeg won.

Shesterkin and Sorokin took the last, fourth place, and Andrei Vasilevsky and Linus Ullmark were ranked higher.

Also, the Russians did not succeed in the classic competition for accuracy, in which it was necessary to close four targets in the minimum time.

Nikita Kucherov and Vladimir Tarasenko capitulated already at the stage of the first round, showing the fifth (18.147 seconds) and seventh (25.062) results respectively.

Artemy Panarin lasted longer than the rest, but he could not go beyond the semi-finals.

At the right moment, the leader of the Rangers got nervous and failed to hit all the targets, although at the start he did it in just over 13 seconds.

Thus, Brock Nelson, who later became the winner, reached the final.

The Islanders forward dealt with Nazem Kadri, who in an incredible duel defeated Connor McDavid himself.

But the Edmonton leader at the start of the competition hit four times in a row and made it to the next stage from first place, spending 9.497 seconds on it.