A day before the best from both EURO League conferences are to get it on to decide who lives in the toughest neighborhood, the league had to hand out some beautiful crowns. The fastest skater, hardest shot and most accurate shooter contests were held in Nepela Arena, Bratislava, and the favorites going in found they had to do more than have a good Websim rating if they wanted a crown.
Each team sent a representative in each of the three categories to Slovakia for the contest, and their Websim skill rating was multiplied by the amount of effort they put in to the contest (it could be considered luck as well) which was a percentage of between 90 and 100 percent. The highest totals won.
Fastest Skater
Erk Karlsson of the Madrid Royals came in as the favorite, but he wasn’t the fastest skater on this day. In fact, he wasn’t even the fastest 21-year-old. Frankfurt’s Steven Stamkos barely edged Karlsson out for the title by less than 2 tenths of a second. Here are the top 10 fastest EURO skaters:
1. Stamkos, Frankfurt
2. Karlsson, Madrid
3. Crosby, Belfast
4. Goligoski, Copenhagen
5. Malkin, Paris
6. St. Louis, Helsinki
7. Enstrom, Bern
8. Callahan, Milan
9. Skinner, London
10. D. Boyle, Munich
Biggest surprise: Goligoski, Copenhagen. Go ahead, try to beat him on the outside. Biggest disappointment: Parise, Prague. Has the speed to win it, finished out of the top 10.
Hardest shot
Three huge defensemen – Dustin Byfuglien, Shea Weber and Zdeno Chara – were the pre-contest favorites, but Alexander Ovechkin was looming as a spoiler. The three Dmen lived up to the advance billing, with Big Z getting the loudest cheers in front of the home fans. The loudest shot, however, was Byfuglien’s 105 mph blast.
1. Byfuglien, Milan
2. Weber, Oslo
3. Chara, Bratislava
4. Perry, Paris
5. Ovechkin, Moscow
6. Horton, Athens
7. Kovalchuk, Zurich
8. J. Staal, Madrid
9. B. Boyle, Frankfurt
10. Edler, Berlin
Biggest surprise: Many players got good wood on their shots, but Corey Perry, Paris, did very well to beat out Ovechkin and become the best of the rest after the big 3. Biggest disappointment: Patrik Berglund’s (Minsk) 79 mph shot was not very impressive.
Accurate shooter
Some very skillful shooters lined up for this contest, with Karlsson, Stamkos and Crosby all looking at each other as the ones to beat. The crown went to an underdog, the same guy who had just won the hardest shot contest. Dustin Byfuglien had his twig sighted in and was focused enough to be crowned as league’s sharpest sharpshooter.
1. Byfuglien, Milan
2. Malkin, Paris
3. Karlsson, Madrid
4. Toews, Bratislava
5. Crosby, Belfast
6. Kessel, Dublin
7. Ovechkin, Moscow
8. Kovalchuk, Zurich
9. Stamkos, Frankfurt
10. D Sedin, Oslo
Biggest surprise: Byfuglien, Milan. Gettin’ kinda greedy, eh Dustin? Work on your skating, ya bum. Biggest disappointment: Martin St. Louis, Helsinki. Veteran seemed to have trouble performing with the spotlight on him.
The chart shows each team’s representative, their Websim rating going into the contest, the random number (RND) that represented effort/luck, and their final total, which was their Websim rating multiplied by the random number. Click to enlarge image.
