NHL Adds Hockey/Golf Hybrid Event 'Pitch 'n Puck' To Skills Competition

What do you get when you cross hockey and golf (and don't say the Philadelphia Flyers' season!)?

You get Pitch 'n Puck, the bastard child of both sports that's coming to the NHL All-Star Skills Competition early next month.

The league announced the full slate of events for the 2023 NHL All-Star Skills Competition which will be Feb. 3. While some old favorites like Hardest Shot and Fastest Skater are on the docket as per usual, this year's Skills Competition will have three new events, one of which is the hockey/golf fusion, Pitch 'n Puck, formally known as the Chipotle NHL Pitch 'n Puck.

Get it? Like Pitch 'n Putt. Hopefully, whoever at the NHL came up with that didn't get hurt patting themself on the back.

According to the NHL, six players will take part in the event while on a par 4 golf hole with an island green. The winner is whoever can get the ball or puck in the hole in the fewest number of strokes.

Y'know, like in golf.

It sure sounds like players will be swapping between shooting pucks and hitting golf balls for this event. That could be cool, especially if that factors into the strategy. Maybe someone thinks they can launch a slapshot farther than they can hit a drive.

I'm not going to lie, I'm kind of liking the sound of this.

Dylan Larkin of the Detroit Red Wings competes in the Fastest Skater competition at the 2022 NHL All-Star Skills Competition in Las Vegas. (Photo by Jeff Speer/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Splash Shot and Tendy Tandem Are Making Their Skills Competition Debuts

Pitch 'n Puck isn't the only event making its maiden Skills Competition appearance.

The NHL is taking advantage of the beach being a stone's throw away (actually, Fort Lauderdale's beaches are probably a good 30 minutes away from where the Panthers play, depending on traffic.)

Logistics be damned, the NHL is giving us Splash Shot... I'm sorry, I mean the Enterprise NHL Splash Shot.

For that one, players will divide into teams and hit targets and then will try to dunk their opponent. I'm guessing that's in some kind of dunk tank versus the open ocean, but we shall see.

Finally, the league is debuting an all-goalie event called Tendy Tandem.

Oops, I meant to say "Discover NHL Tendy Tandem."

It will consist of all 8 All-Star goalies working together in an event that sounds way too complicated and could be a total mess. I tried to read how it could work and all I got was that one goalie shoots at a target and if he makes it the other one faces a shot.

Yeah, I have no clue about that one.

The Skills competition is usually entertaining, I just wish the NHL would've moved away from some of these gimmicky events.

I'm old school when it comes to Skills Competitions. Nothing will be more thrilling than Roenick crushing four targets on four shots, or Chara blasting a 108.8 clapper.

... Still, I will concede Pitch 'n puck sounds pretty cool.

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