Colorado Avalanche: Skills Competition and All-Star Game

While the rest of the team goes on vacation for bye-week, the Colorado Avalanche top line is getting ready for the All-Star weekend.

Believe it or not, we have reached the halfway mark of the Colorado Avalanche’s 2018-2019 season, and with that come bye-week and the All-Star weekend. Lucky us, we still have some Colorado Avalanche goodness coming as we have three players representing the team at this year’s All-Star game: Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon, and Mikko Rantanen.

This magical weekend is probably the only time of the season where (most) hockey fans put their differences aside and enjoy the game, skills competition, and all the media goodness that come with it. While we wait for the NHL to announce who will participate in which category of the Skills Competition, here are some friendly suggestions (that they should absolutely take into account) regarding our Colorado Avalanche boys:

NHL Fastest Skater: Nathan MacKinnon.

He was robbed last year, alright? Might as well get another chance.

That is, of course, if our dear Nate is still good to go. He was supposed to have an MRI done on his foot today after being hit with a puck during the game against the Minnesota Wild. According to the Avalanche Twitter, he’ll be joining the team tomorrow..

NHL Premier Passer: Gabriel Landeskog.

This is our Captain’s first All-Star appearance, so why not adding him to the “Passing Challenge”? Nothing that we haven’t seen from him, especially this season. He could easily be on the top 3 in this category.

NHL Puck Control: Mikko Rantanen.

And then there’s our point leader, Mikko Rantanen. The skills competition I want to see him at is Puck Control – that one where, last year, Erik Karlsson said “well, why the hell not” and picked up the puck and put it on the stick. A certain level of creativity is allowed here, and I would love to see what Mikko brings.

And then, there’s the game.

Joining our three stars in the Central Division team are Chicago’s Patrick Kane, St. Louis’ Ryan O’Reilly, Winnipeg’s Mark Scheifele and Blake Wheeler, Dallas’ Miro Heiskanen, Nashville’s Roman Josi and Pekka Rinne, and Minnesota’s Devan Dubnyk. But of course, the best part of this is that our very own Nathan MacKinnon will be the Captain of the team.

How to Enjoy the All Star Weekend

Skills Competition: January 25, 7:00 pm MT (NBCSN)
All Star Game: January 26, 6:00 pm MT (NBC)

The game will be in the three-on-three format. First up will be the Central Division vs Pacific, followed by Metro vs Atlantic.

And now we wait to see if the NHL paid attention to my suggestions above. Which skills competitions would you like to see our Colorado Avalanche representatives in? We’re listening.