A day before the best from both EURO League conferences are to play for the right to say they play in the best conference, the league had to hand out three crowns. The fastest skater, hardest shot and most accurate shooter contests were held in Paris, 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 France 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.
Previous winners were:
Fastest Skater: Steven Stamkos, Frankfurt (Season 1); Erik Karlsson, Madrid (Season 2); Stamkos, Frankfurt (Season 3)
Hardest Shot: Dustin Byfuglien, Milan (Season 1); Shea Weber, Oslo (Season 2); Shea Weber, London (Season 3)
Accuracy: Dustin Byfuglien, Milan (Season 1); Erik Karlsson, Madrid (Season 2); Kris Letang, Paris (Season 3)
Fastest Skater
Teams have invested in training and it shows. Many clubs have hired power skating coaches and in this competition, there are 8 players with 100 speed ratings. Steven Stamkos also has a 100 rating, but he wasn’t even fast enough to make it into the contest, having been edged out by Claude Giroux in Madrid’s team contest. Winning the race on Saturday to claim the title of EURO’s fastest player is Gothenburg winger Petr Vrana, who has scored 6 goals for the Devils at the half-way mark. Here are the top 10 fastest EURO skaters:
1. Vrana, Gothenburg
2. Crosby, Belfast
3. Marchand, Helsinki
4. Gallagher, Stockholm
5. Letang, Paris
6. Kennedy, Oslo
7. Skinner, London
8. P. Kane, Zurich
9. Goligoski, Copenhagen
10. Brunner, Munich
Hardest shot
Three big, strong defensemen – Dustin Byfuglien, Shea Weber and Zdeno Chara – have dominated this event for the last three years. But Chara’s skills have deteriorated to the point he has only the third-hardest shot on Bratislava. The Eagles’ other towering defender, Tyler Myers, can challenge Byfuglien and Weber, as can Zurich sniper Ilya Kovalchuk. Byfuglien didn’t quite have it Saturday, and he finished 5th behind the other three and Nathan Horton of Berlin. Myers’ shot was clocked at 99.5 mph, but Weber won the title again with a 100.8 mph blast. Weber has now won the title three times representing three different teams.
1. Weber, Copenhagen
2. Myers, Bratislava
3. Kovalchuk, Zurich
4. Horton, Berlin
5. Byfuglien, Athens
6. J. Staal, Madrid
7. Burns, St. Petersburg
8. Kopitar, Moscow
9. Bogosian, London
10. Hertl, Oslo
Accurate shooter
A pair of defensemen came into the contest looking at each other as the man to beat. Erik Karlsson and Kris Letang were the favorites, but supremely skilled forwards Sidney Crosby, Steven Stamkos, John Tavares and Patrick Kane would have something to say about it for sure. The crown went to Karlsson – his second title in this event – with Byfuglien nearly coming up with the second upset accurate shooter title of his career.
1. Karlsson, Madrid
2. Byfuglien, Athens
3. Crosby, Belfast
4. Eberle, Gothenburg
5. Letang, Paris
6. Spezza, Bern
7. Backstrom, Minsk
8. Stamkos, Frankfurt
9. Kopitar, Moscow
10. Tavares, Edinburgh
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.
