SuperSkills Recap with Thoughts from Lundqvist and Marc Staal

Reuters Pictures

RALEIGH, NC -- Saturday's Honda SuperSkills Competition certainly lived up to the expectations we set for it going in. From Daniel Sedin's sharpshooting to Zdeno Chara's record-breaking 105.9 mph blast, the events kept the fans in attendance at their edge of their seats and provided for some fun competition between the players taking part.

Michael Grabner of the New York Islanders kicked things off by winning the Fastest Skater Challenge. Give credit to Kevin Weekes of the NHL Network, because he picked this kid to win it from the start. He could really fly, but what most impressed me was his ability to maintain speed when going through the turns.

Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals was then chosen as the winner of the BlackBerry Breakaway challenge for his butt-end deke on Marc-Andre Fleury. I also thought Corey Perry gave him a run for his money with some of the moves he pulled off as well.

I absolutely loved the G Series Skills Relay. It gave the players an opportunity to simply mess around with the puck and display the skills they have been working on since they were kids. Team Lidstrom came out on top of this one, partly due to the fact that Jonathan Toews was able to hit all four targets consecutively at the end of the relay. The mini nets were a great idea, but the players handled them better than I thought they would.

Zdeno Chara and Shea Weber (no surprise) were the last two standing in the Hardest Shot Competition. Weber was able to laser one at 103 mph, but Chara eventually topped it by breaking his own record with a 105.9 mph cannon. Alex Ovechkin was also fun to watch in this competition, between breaking his stick, tripping over the camera wire and then not having his shot registered multiple times. Good stuff.

The night concluded with the Discover Elimination Shootout, in which Henrik Lundqvist and Marc-Andre Fleury dominated in net. Lundqvist stopped all shooters through two rounds besides Marty St. Louis, who pulled off his famous 'reverse' deke.

I got a chance to ask Lundqvist about facing all of those talented shooters in the locker room afterwards...

"It is definitely a challenge," he said. "Usually when you go into a shootout during the regular season you face the best players on the team, so a lot of these guys you've met before in the shootout."

And I just had to question him about facing Ranger teammate Derek Stepan, who almost beat him with a great move...

"He almost had me there," the smirking Lundqvist said. "He knew I was down so I was in trouble. I managed to keep going and going and slide over to the post. Sort of got lucky there."

Also waited around for Marc Staal and got to ask him a few questions. The first was on playing with brother Eric for the first time tomorrow in the All-Star Game....

"It should be fun," said Marc. "I'm pretty excited about it. Obviously it's an All-Star Game, which is a little different than playing a regular game, but I've never played with him before so I am looking forward to it".

And lastly I asked him about the season he is having individually with New York....

"It's going well," said Staal. "Our team has started to play well, so that is always easier for individual success. I have a good partner in [Dan] Girardi and we've found success playing together, so it's been a lot of fun so far".

So that does it for tonight here in Raleigh. I am off to an after-party now, and then it is back to the Arena tomorrow for the big game.

By the way, tonight's final score was 33-22 in favor of Team Staal. G'night everyone!

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