Sharp Shooter: Brock Nelson wins Accuracy Shooting at NHL All Stars Skills Competition

Hey, an Islander won an event at the All Star Skills competition!

First time All Star Brock Nelson took the Accuracy Shooting competition, beating Islanders teammate Calgary’s Nazim Kadri in the finals. Nelson went 4-5 in the final round in an impressive showing.

Nelson got to the final by beating Rangers winger Artemi Panarin in the semis. In the first round, Nelson hit the four targets in five shots and in the second fastest time of 12.126 seconds. Connor McDavid went four-for-four and looked to be the early favorite in the event (as if he wasn’t already). But McDavid lost to Kadri by a fraction of the second in the semis in an upset.

The accuracy shooting is a classic All Star Skills event and it’s cool to see an Islander win it. To be blunt, the 2023 NHL All Star Skills Competition was equal parts bizarre and boring, with three bloated hours of commercials, sad carnival gimmicks, robotic hockey players giving lame interviews and, most egregiously of all, golf. What should be a fast, fun frolic for hockey fanatics was anything but.

Nelson sure looked like he was having fun at his first All Star weekend, chilling with teammates Ilya Sorokin and Bo Horvat and having his son on the ice to share the experience.

And here’s Bo Horvat with his son Gunnar.

Horvat did some passing in the Accuracy Shooting but otherwise didn’t take part in any events. Sorokin was teamed with his friend Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin in the new Tendy Tandem event. I’d love to explain it to you but I have no idea what was going on. All I know is they didn’t win.

This competition sounds more interesting than the actual event:

Great job, Brock. Congrats. Hope the guys all enjoy Saturday’s All Star Game, airing at 3 pm ET on ABC. And remember: DON’T GET HURT.