The NHL All-Star Skills Competition has become nearly as anticipated as the All-Star Game, which features the best players in the league.Much like Major League Baseball's Home Run Derby and the NBA's Slam Dunk and Three-Point Contests, fans fill the seats in anticipation of the game's celebrated stars putting their talents on display without getting hounded by opposing defenders.The Skills Competition will be held at the Staples Center on Saturday, with the events getting underway at 7 p.m. ET. The event will be televised on NBCSN in the United States, whileCBC, Sportsnet and TVA Sports will broadcast the event in Canada.Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins (Metropolitan Division), Carey Price of the Montreal Canadiens (Atlantic), P.K. Subban of the Nashville Predators (Central) and Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers (Pacific) are the fan-elected captains. They will lead their teams in the Skills Competition, as well as the All-Star Game on Sunday.The events in the Skills Competition include theSkills Challenge Relay, Four Line Challenge, Accuracy Shooting, Fastest Skater, Hardest Shot and the Shootout.The Skills Challenge Relay is one of the most challenging events of the night, and it features seven skaters and a goalie per team. The event consists of five challenges: One Timers, Passing, Puck Control, Stick-Handling and Goalie Goals.The Central Division will square off with the Pacific Division, while the Atlantic Division meets the Metropolitan Division. The winner of each heat earns a point, and the team with the best overall time wins a bonus point.The Four Line Challenge features four shooters from each team shooting from four pre-determined spots. Those spots include the near blue line, the red line, the far blue line and the far goal line. The scoring shots are worth varying point totals, depending on the distance. Additionally, a goalie who substitutes as a shooter can score double points for his team. This event is worth one point overall.The Accuracy Shooting event has long been one of the most popular All-Star events. Each shooter must hit the 15-inch diameter target in each corner of the net, and the players who accomplish this in the fastest time give their team the advantage. This event is worth six points.The Fastest Skater Event features two skaters from each team competing in a race around the ice. The Pacific Division skaters match up with the Central Division skaters, while the Atlantic meets the Metropolitan. The winners of the heats pick up a point for their respective teams, and the fastest skater overall wins another point. That competitor will skate one more lap in an attempt to break Dylan Larkin's record of 13.172 seconds, and if he can do that, it's another point for his team.The Hardest Shot competition has been the NHL's equivalent of the Home Run Derby in baseball. It has featured bombers like Zdeno Chara of the Boston Bruins and Shea Weber of the Montreal Canadiens in the past.Two players from each division will compete by shooting the puck from 30 feet out, and once again the event features Central vs. Pacific and Atlantic vs. Metropolitan. The winner of each heat gets a point for his team, and if any player can beat Chara's all-time record of 108.8 miles per hour, that's another bonus point for his team.Finally, the Shootout features two teams of nine skaters and two goalies, representing the Eastern and Western Conferences. It is similar to the shootout employed in the NHL, but there are a couple of wrinkles that make the event more interesting and could play havoc with the scoring. One of those includes thecaptains choosing an additional skater from the other team in their conference.Each goal scored counts one point, but additional goals scored with the event sponsor's puck counts as two.
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