DISCLAIMER: My brothers’ awesome present of Oilers Skills Competition tickets is the only reason I can write this post, so this post is officially sponsored by Topher and Max Flanagan. Thanks, guys!
The 2017 Oilers Skills Competition provided some great times, with very few surprising results. Some of the Oilers definitely had more fun than others this afternoon; McDavid seemed maybe a little bit hungover during the intros, but Patrick Maroon was accompanied by his son Anthony (remember this?) who couldn’t have been happier.
Joined by the Peewee AA Sherwood Park Jets, our Oilers were divided into the Orange and Blue teams and put through their paces. The sold-out event was high-spirited (thank god we won last night’s game!).
ORANGE: Talbot, Hendricks, Gryba, Caggiula, Kassian, Maroon, Eberle, Davidson, Klefbom, Slepyshev
BLUE: Brossoit, Khaira, Benning, Letestu, Sekera, Lucic, Nugent-Hopkins, Pouliot, McDavid
FASTEST SKATER: CONNOR MCDAVID
I really wanted someone else to win this, JUST BECAUSE. But McDavid easily took top honours, and the Blue team won every lap including the kids’ ones. (Benning and Davidson took the backwards-skating rounds, with Benning coming out on top.)
Team Blue: 6 / Team Orange: 0
BREAKAWAY CHALLENGE: DRAKE “DRAKE” CAGGIULA/ANTHONY MAROON
Rogers Place got the crowd to vote for head-to-head shooters in this event, so points were available for whatever combination of style and scoring the audience decided mattered. The first point for Team Orange came from Peewee player Ty Thornton, but then “Hotline Bling” filled the arena. Drake Caggiula emerged with a wig, beard, sunglasses, chains, and jacket over his gear, to thunderous applause.(Benning scored twice on Talbot, though, and beat both Drakes for the audience vote.) Eberle won over Nuge, and then came Letestu vs. Maroon – Anthony Maroon, that is. To wrap up, Sherwood Park Jets coach Mike Hurley challenged Tom Gazzola to a round on sledges and handily defeated him.
Team Blue: 8 / Team Orange: 3
Started from the bottom, now he here. #OilersSkills pic.twitter.com/grz134170x
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) January 15, 2017
MOST ACCURATE SHOOTER: RYAN NUGENT-HOPKINS
Nuge demolished the 4 targets in 5 shots. McDavid, Eberle, Letestu, and Klefbom all put up a nice 4 targets in 6 shots, with Slepy bringing up the rear with 3 targets out of 6 shots. Could’ve been a much worse day, all round.
Team Blue: 11 / Team Orange: 3
SKILLS CHALLENGE RELAY: LAURENT BROSSOIT
In this relay, teams of players had to get one-timers past a goalie screen (2 goals = they could move on), complete 4 saucer passes into tiny nets, demonstrate excellent puck control around pylons, and finish with their goalie shooting an empty netter down the rink.
Team Orange put up a good fight, going first and navigating the logistics. Hendricks just killed the saucer passes and Slepy danced around the pylons. But Team Blue got there 3 seconds faster, because Laurent Brossoit only needed one shot to get his final empty-netter. (McDavid knocked down a pylon, on his end.)
Team Blue: 16 / Team Orange: 3
HARDEST SHOT: MILAN LUCIC
The crowd was getting quiet at this point, despite repeated calls for more cheers, until Pouliot put up his 102.2 and 102.0 shots. (Maroon was playing with his son on the other end of the ice, so he almost missed his own turn.) Lucic just did some push-ups on centre ice, and slammed out a 102.7 shot for the win.
Team Blue: 19 / Team Orange: 3
“Team Blue is dominant, we came here to play and really took it seriously.” (Milan Lucic)
KING OF THE SHOOTOUT: MARK LETESTU
Really, was there ever any doubt? Only Klefbom, Letestu, Gryba, and Slepyshev made it to the second round of King of the Shootout, and it didn’t even go to a third. Letestu beat Talbot twice to earn his team the last win of the day.
FINAL SCORE
Team Blue: 21 / Team Orange: 6
And yes, this is my own tweet. But COME ON. Anthony Maroon is so cute.
Possibly the happiest moment at the #OilersSkills today! @patmaroon has taught him great things and class moves by @LBrossoit. pic.twitter.com/vsobyLkWpe
— k (@salmalin) January 15, 2017
OILERS RIG LIVE4MS
Our 4th annual fundraiser for the MS Society of Alberta is set for January 21, 2017 at The Pint Downtown, at 6:30pm! It’s a Battle of Alberta on HNIC, with the Oilers in Calgary starting at 8:00pm.
We’ll have a great lineup of silent auction items, and raffles throughout the night. We might even have t-shirts for sale (but we’ll let you know as we get closer to the date). All proceeds from the fundraiser go to the MS Society of Alberta.
See you there!
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