Nashville’s Shea Weber Wins Second Straight ‘Hardest Shot’ Contest
The NHL is on All-Star Break and on Saturday night the stars of pro hockey showed off the myriad skills necessary to excel at the game. Hockey is a sport of toughness, speed, and finesse–and then there’s sheer power. That’s the quality that was on display as Nashville Predators’ defenseman Shea Weber won the ‘Hardest Shot’ competition for the second straight year.
Weber hit the 108 MPH mark for the second straight season, though his 2016 winner of 108.1 was marginally off from his 108.5 winner in Columbus last year. He was still fractionally short of the all time record of 108.8 set by Boston Bruins’ defenseman Zdeno Chara in 2014. Weber didn’t have much to say about the shot itself but was pleased with the reaction of his hometown fans in Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena: “Obviously to see how passionate these fans are, it’s been so much fun so far. Looking forward to the rest of the weekend.”
Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos finished second with a 103.9 effort. He says that we can expect Weber to dominate the competition for awhile: “The guys actually said I won because [Weber] is going to win every year regardless. You see his mechanics, you see the size of him, it doesn’t surprise us anymore how hard he shoots that thing.” Montreal Canadiens’ captain P.K. Subban was also high on the list of finishers–he attempted four shots with two not registering on the radar. His best effort was 102.3 MPH. Career enforcer and Pacific Division Captain John Scott also competed but didn’t break the 100 MPH barrier.
Earlier in the evening, Detroit Red Wings’ rookie Dylan Larkin broke Mike Gartner’s longstanding record in the ‘fastest skater’ competition. Larkin circled the rink in 13.172 seconds to eclipse the mark that Gartner held for 20 years, posting a time of 13.386 seconds at the 1996 NHL All-Star Game. Despite the impressive time, there’s still controversy–Gartner set his record from a dead stop at the red line. Larkin started his stride at the blue line and the timing of his run began when he hit the red line. In actuality, Larkin may be only #3 all time–Gartner finished a stick blade ahead of Sergei Federov in 1996.