David Pastrnak will be the sole Bruins player representing the Black and Gold at NHL All-Star Weekend commencing in St. Louis tonight, so he’ll be the guy the Bruins fans will be watching when it airs on NBCSN tonight starting at 8 p.m.
Even cooler, the 23-year-old Pastrnak will be taking part in an exciting new part of Friday night’s Skills Competition with the inaugural “Shooting Stars” event.
While it was perhaps a little bit of a surprise that Pastrnak won’t be defending his title in the Honda NHL Shooting Accuracy competition that he won at last year’s NHL All-Star Weekend, it’s no surprise at all that the league chose his star power and natural charisma to help usher in this newly invented shooting competition.
LIVE stream the Celtics all season and get the latest news and analysis on all of your teams from NBC Sports Boston by downloading the My Teams App.
Pastrnak is leading the NHL with 37 goals at the All-Star break and is on pace for 60 goals and 113 points this season in a half-year that’s already garnering Hart Trophy talk for the B’s right wing.
The Shooting Stars will involve players standing approximately 30 feet high on a platform and shooting at targets on the ice just as Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin did in a recent video starring the two faces of the Penguins.
Boston Bruins
Along with Pastrnak, here are the rest of the “Shooting Stars” competitors, also including a pair of female players from the U.S. and Canadian select teams that will be selected by social media vote:
Participants:
- Matthew Tkachuk, Calgary Flames
- Patrick Kane, Chicago Blackhawks
- Tyler Seguin, Dallas Stars
- Brady Tkachuk, Ottawa Senators
- Ryan O’Reilly, St. Louis Blues
- David Perron, St. Louis Blues
- Mitch Marner, Toronto Maple Leafs
Here’s a rundown on the Shooting Stars competition, courtesy of the NHL: Ten players — eight NHL All-Stars, and one American Elite Women’s All-Star team member and one Canadian Elite Women’s All-Star team member — will compete in the Gatorade NHL Shooting Stars™.
Players from the American and Canadian Elite Women’s All-Star teams will be selected by social media vote. Players will be positioned on an elevated platform behind the goal, approximately 30 feet above the ice surface, where they will shoot pucks at a variety of targets located on the ice, with each target possessing different point values. One at a time, each player will attempt seven shots and earn points for each target hit.
• Pucks that do not hit a target will earn no points.
• Pucks that bounce, deflect, or otherwise ricochet onto or into a target will be counted for the highest scoring value they hit.
• A puck that hits the face of a target then falls into the center will be scored as if it went directly into the center.
• A puck that hits the center and bounces out will be scored the point value of the center.
• A puck that bounces off the ice then up onto or into a target will be awarded the corresponding value.
• A puck that hits the base of the target will not be awarded any points.
• Players may hit the same target multiple times.
All scoring denominations will be decided by the on-ice officials. If at the completion of the event there is a tie for the highest score, players will shoot three pucks each to determine a winner. If the players remain tied after the three pucks, a sudden death “score-off” will occur.