The National Hockey League (NHL) hosted its annual All-Star Hockey Competition in Columbus, Ohio, home of the Blue Jackets, this year. The competition featured the best of the best from the league. A majority of the teams from the NHL were represented at the competition this year, and a few of the players included Patrice Bergeron from the Boston Bruins, Tyler Seguin from the Dallas Stars, Ryan Johansen from the Columbus Blue Jackets, and many other top notch players. All of the players were divided into two teams, one being Team Toews and the other being Team Foligno, after a fantasy draft, where the named captains of the two teams, Nick Foligno and Johnathan Toews, picked out the players that they would “draft” onto their teams.

The weekend included a Skills Competition, which consisted of many different sectors including Fastest Skater, a Breakaway Challenge, Accuracy Shooting, Skills Challenge Relay, Shootout, and the Hardest Shot competition, along with the All Star Game, both of which would pit the two teams against each other to see who would come out on top.

One of the more popular of the skills challenges was the breakaway challenge. Ryan Johansen of the Columbus Blue Jackets stole the show with his three different creative attempts of getting a goal on a breakaway. First, he donned an Ohio State Buckeyes Jersey, which of course excited the Ohio fans that were present at the competition that took place in the Nationwide Arena. Then, Johansen picked up the son of the Columbus Blue Jackets’ Athletic Trainer and he assisted him on scoring the goal. Then for his final attempt to wow the crowd, Johansen, along with a few other players from Team Foligno formed the ‘V’ formation from the classic hockey movie Mighty Ducks in order to score a goal. Overall, Ryan Johansen’s performances won over the crowd, and he was voted in by the fans as the winner of the Breakaway Challenge.

Other individual challenge winners included: The Fastest Skater: Jonathan Drouin from Team Foligno with a time of 13.103 seconds, the Most Accurate Shooter: Patrick Kane also from Team Foligno, and the Hardest Shot winner Shea Weber from Team Toews with a 108.5 mph shot according to nhl.com. At the conclusion of the Skills Competition, Team Foligno reigned supreme over Team Toews with a 25-19 overall score.

Then the players took to the ice for the game of the greats, Team Toews vs. Team Folignio, East vs. West. The game was a record breaker, with a total of 29 goals being scored in total between the two teams. The first period ended with the two teams tied with a 4 to 4 score. Then in the second period, Team Toews pulled away from Team Foligno and the period ended with an 11-8 score in favor of Team Toews. Finally in the third period, the scoring ended up 17 to 12, with Team Toews being able to hold onto their lead and come out victorious.  Afterwards, Team Foligno’s Ryan Johansen was selected as the Most Valuable Player of the game by the fans, and the game was a huge hit in the hockey community.

Overall, the weekend ended up showcasing Columbus as an exceptional hockey establishment and the Blue Jackets’ selected players represented the team and city phenomenally. The weekend will forever be remembered in the hearts and minds of the hockey players and fans who participated in this year’s NHL All Star Weekend event.