Flying start for Team Bobrov in All-Star Skill Show

Team Bobrov made a clean sweep of the first three rounds of the skill show at the 2023 Fonbet KHL All-Star Game. Alexander Nikishin, Pavel Poryadin and captain Nikolai Goldobin won their events as this year’s showcase got underway in St. Petersburg.

Biggest in the world

The action is taking place at the SKA Arena, newly built and proudly boasting the largest capacity of any hockey venue on the planet. The All-Star Weekend is the first major event staged here, with the Channel 1 Cup due to follow next weekend.

To kick off the opening day for the 21,500-seater arena, rapper ST – an assistant coach as Team Bobrov won last year’s All-Star event in Chelyabinsk – got the crowd rocking. The opening ceremony also referenced Petersburg’s rich cultural heritage, now augmented by its new hockey arena. Then it was into the Skill Show.

Team Bobrov takes control

The first event in the Skill Show was the Hardest Shot test. One player from each team had two attempts to blast the puck as hard as he could. Nikishin, who plays for SKA, was a popular winner with the hometown crowd after clocking in at 168.28 km/h with his first attempt.

Next came the Shooting Accuracy competition. Four players faced five targets hung in different parts of the net, and had to hit them as quickly and accurately as possible. Spartak’s Pavel Poryadin was first up, and set an unmatchable standard. He needed six attempts to hit them all, finishing the job in just 7.325 seconds. 

Pavel Poryadin
It’s a great feeling: the arena is just ‘wow’, it’s great to be out on the ice in this atmosphere. Plus I’ve got my family with me, my parents came, everything worked out. Although it’s a bit of a show, there’s still some professional pride here – I wanted to hit five out of five. But it was good to show what I could do and set a bit of a record.

The Captain’s Challenge wrapped up the first round of the Skill Show, and once again it was Team Bobrov to the fore. Spartak’s Goldobin had the best result from his six tasks, making it three wins from three contests for his team.

However, Nikita Gusev also caught the eye with his beer-themed head gear – “when in Petersburg, ‘Pit’,” (‘Pit’ is the Russian for ‘drink’) the Team Tarasov captain joked on his return to the city where he played for SKA between 2016 and 2022.

Nikita Gusev
I thought we ‘d have a bit of fun. Usually we do this with the penalty shots, but we thought we’d try something in the captain’s challenge as well. I really like the new arena. It’s true that when you’re on the ice you don’t quite feel how big the crowd is. But it’s really cool, a big, spacious arena. And it was great to get such a good reception coming back here.