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Tavares picks All Star Skills competition roster, preps for target shooting

You're dead meat, Styrofoam.

By Dan Saraceni
I want these guys on my side for a change.
I want these guys on my side for a change.
Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports

Here's one for The More You Know file: among the duties of an All Star team captain is selecting which of your fellow stars will do what at the all important skills competition.

This morning in Nashville, Metro Division captain John Tavares and Atlantic Division captain Jaromir Jagr filled out the roster for the Eastern Conference All Stars, deciding who gets to skate, snipe and slap on Saturday night.

Both will participate in one of the event's marquee spots - the accuracy competition. Tavares will be one of the shooters for the East, along with Patrice Bergeron, Evgeni Malkin and Claude Giroux (Ed. note: Jeeeeesus Christ), while Jagr will be one of the passers, setting those guys up alongside Niklas Backstrom (Ed. note 2: see Ed. note 1).

They'll also be in the breakaway competition along with everyone else. Jagr's part of the first round, and Tavares will compete in the third and final round.

The full East list is here, and the Western Conference list is here, selected by captains Patrick Kane and, yes, still, John Scott.

Tavares no doubt remembers last year's skill competition in Columbus, where he was part of the relay event and tasked with shooting pucks into little tiny nets on the other side of the ice. Tavares is a brilliant hockey player and skilled multi-sport athlete, but holy cow did he have a rough time. Smart move making other guys do that this year.

You can watch the skills competition on NBCSN, SportsNet, CBC, TVA Sports starting at 7 pm on Saturday night.