NHL Picks: Who wins the first All-Star 3-on-3 tournament? – CBSSports.com
Welcome to NHL Picks where CBSSports.com hockey writers Chris Peters and Adam Gretz make their predictions for all the day’s games.
Team Metropolitan vs. Team Atlantic, 5 p.m. ET
Team Central vs. Team Pacific, 6 p.m. ET
Championship Game, 7 p.m. ET
After a rousing Skills Competition that may have been the best the league has put on in years, the main event is upon us. For the first time ever, the NHL All-Star Game will actually be a 3-on-3 tournament featuring four teams separated by division.
The new format is yet another attempt to make this game matter and engage fans amid falling ratings and general disinterest among even the most ardent of hockey fans. On top of the 3-on-3, which takes the league’s wildly popular overtime procedure and extrapolates it, there will also be prize money on the line. The winning team will split $1 million 11 ways, for a $90,000-plus payday for each player for a few hours’ work.
So there’s the new format, there’s a decent incentive for the players to actually play and there’s a cast of NHLers that appear perfect fits for putting on a show. Now we’ll get to find out if there’s actually a payoff.
Here’s a quick refresher on the format of the tournament:
As you already know, the competing teams will each have three skaters and a goalie on the ice. Each team has six forwards, three defensemen and two goalies on their bench.
The games will be 20 minutes (of clock time) in length. The two teams will switch ends at the 10-minute mark. If the games are tied at the end of regulation, a shootout will be held.
Since the Eastern Conference won the Skills Competition, they earned the right to pick the order of Sunday’s semifinals. They elected to go first, pitting the Metropolitan Division captained by John Tavares (in place of Alex Ovechkin) against the Atlantic Division captained by Jaromir Jagr. After that, they’ll clear the ice and Team Central led by Patrick Kane will go head-to-head with Team Pacific and captain John Scott a.k.a The People’s Champion.
The NHL All-Stars are ready to put on a show in Nashville. (USATSI)
So who is going to win?
What we don’t know until the puck drops is how much of an effort the players put forth in this game. There’s a lot of ice to cover out there and this is still very much an exhibition game, prize money or not. This is still likely to be a no-check game, with marginal defense and a lot of goals. But as the players showed Saturday during the skills event, they’re ready to entertain in Nashville.
So here some things to consider when it comes to the competition:
Team Atlantic: With Erik Karlsson and P.K. Subban on the same team, the Atlantic boasts a pair of the most dynamic defensemen in the league. Guys that can move the puck extremely well and play with speed are valued in 3-on-3. They’ve also got some good wheels up front with Fastest Skater record-breaker Dylan Larkin, who is a rookie playing in his first all-star game. Then there’s one of the game’s elite goal scorers in Steven Stamkos. Goalies Roberto Luongo and Ben Bishop are strong between the pipes, but Luongo has gone 1-3 in OT this year, while Bishop is 2-0.
Team Metropolitan: The team with by far the best goaltending tandem in the tournament, the Metro are strong in an area that doesn’t usually matter much in an All-Star game. That said, both Braden Holtby and Cory Schneider have been excellent this year overall. Schneider is one of the NHL’s best OT goalies with a 5-1 record, while Holtby is 2-2. They also have some really intriguing forwards. Late addition and first-time all-star Evgeny Kuznetsov and perennial all-star Evgeni Malkin each have been very good in 3-on-3 this year and they’ve got some defensemen who can really fire it from the point and like to get engaged offensively.
Team Central: Boasting the three top scorers in the league – Patrick Kane, Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin – there’s a lot of fire power in this group. Throw in Vladimir Tarasenko, who is 11th, and Matt Duchene who has been on a tear lately, and you’ve got the best forward group in the tournament. They’ll have to make up for a weaker goaltending tandem in Devan Dubnyk (1-3 in OT) and hometown selection Pekka Rinne (1-6 in OT). Meanwhile the defense has some entertaining talent in Dustin Byfuglien and hometown favorites Roman Josi and Shea Weber.
Team Pacific: The John Scott-led Pacific Division squad is surely an interesting one. They’ve got the best 3-on-3 OT player in the league in Flames forward Johnny Gaudreau. He has three goals and five assists in the extra frame this year. There’s also an exceptional trio of defensemen in Mark Giordano, Drew Doughty and the high-scoring Brent Burns. Up front, they’ve got two of the better goal scorers in the league today in Corey Perry and Joe Pavelski and they have the best story of the weekend in big John Scott. This could end up being the team everyone is secretly rooting for. For Scott, who is on a $575,000 contract this year, $91,000 is a pretty nice bonus.
Predictions
Eastern Semifinal: Team Metropolitan 10, Team Atlantic 8
Western Semifinal: Team Central 11, Team Pacific 10
Championship Game: Team Central 8, Team Metropolitan 6
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