SUNRISE, Florida. Sidney Crosby was dunked in a tank of water, Nick Suzuki hit a golf ball with a Hockey stick, and the NHL turned hockey into an outdoor sport because of its demonstration of skills in South Florida.

Two new outdoor events under the sun marked the league’s annual All-Star Weekend challenge, with several players taking turns hitting golf and hockey on a par-4 course, while others threw pucks at foam surfboards to dunk opponents on the beach. in the background.

On Friday night at the home of the Florida Panthers, Connor McDavid reminded fans and other top players in the world why he leads the NHL in goals and is close to scoring over 60 goals. which was won by Brock Nelson of the New York Islanders.

“I wanted to show that I can do other things,” McDavid said. “I wanted to do something to show that I can shoot the puck a little.”

One of the big stars of the evening was Alex Ovechkin’s 4-year-old son Sergei, who joined his father and longtime rival Crosby’s father to score a goal against Hall of Famer goaltender Roberto Luongo, the only player to have his number. retired Panthers.

Montreal captain Nick Suzuki won the Pitch ‘n Puck golf competition at nearby Plantation by defeating Arizona’s Clayton Keller, Dallas’ Jason Robertson and Columbus’ Johnny Gaudreau with a hit with his hockey stick.

“This is my first bird this year, so I’ll take it,” said Suzuki.

Seven months after winning the Stanley Cup together, Colorado players Cale Makar and Mikko Rantanen won a “Splash Shot” contest in which scores of pucks were thrown into the ocean off Fort Lauderdale Beach.

After winning the Norris Trophy for best defenseman and the Conn Smythe for playoff MVP, Makar joked, “I think this one just beats the rest. No controversy, it’s definitely something I’ve been looking forward to.”

Rantanen dunked Crosby, a three-time Cup-winning Pittsburgh Penguins captain who volunteered to dip in a 5-foot tank and came up with the idea of ​​holding the event with good friend and fellow Cole Harbor, Nova Scotia native Nathan McKinnon. .

“I knew I was in trouble when Rantanen went 3 for 3 on those first three shots. I knew I would get wet,” Crosby said. “I didn’t know that they would shout over me for 20 minutes and kill me. I imagined it in my head a little differently, but it was still fun.”

Crosby acknowledged some technical difficulties associated with the event, with the foam surfboards not going down when McKinnon hit them. It was just one way to try something new on the street that the NHL wanted to do after hosting an event at the famous Bellagio Fountains last year on the Las Vegas Strip.

“We wanted to do a few things on the outside to give the game a Florida feel,” said NHL Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Content Officer Steve Mayer. “We knew that when we came to Florida, we needed to be outside, and we knew it was a risk. By holding such an event, which, as you understand, is not cheap, you (take) a small risk. If we have a rainy week, it’s a disaster. But it was worth the risk and it was worth being outside.”

Outer events went better and caused more noise than many events inside. The slow pace of the event, the arena’s sluggish atmosphere with a crowd devoid of energy with lots of empty seats, and some odd moments such as Boston’s David Pastrnak portraying “Happy Gilmore” drew criticism on social media.

Trevor Zegras of Anaheim, one of the NHL 23 video game cover athletes who culminated last year’s skill challenge by scoring a blindfolded spinning goal, sleeping emoji tweeted. Golfer Brad Fritsch posted: “I suppose I can delete the @NHL skill competition entry? I hear things are…not good.

Canadian women’s hockey star Sara Nurse, who shares the cover with the Zegras, provided one of the best ice moments of the night by scoring current New York Rangers Vezina trophy winner Igor Shesterkin, using a move made famous by Hall of Famer Peter Forsberg when he helped Sweden win gold at the 1994 Olympics.

Andrey Svechnikov from Carolina became the fastest skater with a lap time of 13.69 seconds. The most important moment of the tournament was not the victory of Svechnikov, but the defeat of Makar when trying to go around the net. Makar said later that he was all right.

Nashville’s Yousse Saros and Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebike won the new Tendy Tandem competition, in which goaltenders from the same division alternated kicking from the other end of the court and trying to make saves. Saros scored into the hole in the middle of the net, celebrating as if he had scored in a real game, like former Predators teammate Pekka Rinne – the latest to do so in the NHL in January 2020.

Vancouver’s Elias Pettersson won the hardest shot competition at 103.2 mph, giving the Canucks a rare victory in a tough season as they fired their coach and lost 29 of their first 49 games.

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Follow AP hockey writer Steven Wyno on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SWhyno.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports.