All-Star Adrian! Hear from Kempe before his first ever NHL All-Star Weekend

It’s All-Star Weekend, Insiders!

The league’s annual midseason showcase begins tonight in Las Vegas with the Skills Competition, followed by the All-Star Game tomorrow afternoon.

Representing the LA Kings will be forward Adrian Kempe, who was an incredibly well-deserved recipient of his first-ever All-Star nod. Kempe has had a breakout 2021-22 season, with 19 goals to his name already, representing a career-best for the 25-year-old winger, with 35 games still to play.

Kempe traveled to Vegas yesterday, giving him time to get settled before he hits the ice tonight. His Head Coach, Todd McLellan, has coached in an All-Star game before and is hopeful his forward enjoys every minute of the experience.

“I think that he’s got to go there and enjoy every moment,” McLellan said. “It’s his first and you never know if it’s going to be your last, so don’t go to the hotel and sleep, you can do that next week. Enjoy all the events, intermingle with the players, the media, meet people. It’s an unreal experience if you do those things, but if you’re just in your shell and trying to rest, it’s probably not that enjoyable. Juice is a pretty social guy, I’m sure he’ll do just fine there.”

When we talked, Kempe believed that he will participate in the Fastest Skater event during the Skills Competition, or at least it would certainly make sense, but that wasn’t confirmed at the time. Since, reports have confirmed that, with Kempe set to get the wheels moving later this evening. I caught up with him prior to heading to the All-Star game about what he’s expecting, including what he’s looking forward to, linking up with new teammates and playing in the 3-on-3 style tournament.

Kempe on what he’s most looking forward to about All-Star Weekend
Just overall, the experience. I’ve never been a part of it before, I’ve heard good things and it’s in a good city too, so I’m sure it’s going to be a big show all around. A lot of good players there, so it will be a good experience to meet them too and play with them. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun and overall, I’m just excited to be able to go there.

On now being teammates with usual rivals from the Pacific Division
I feel like it’s a cool thing. Obviously, a lot of guys are really good players, some of them are the best in the world, so it will be cool to be on the same team as them for a couple of periods. Definitely a little bit weird at the beginning too, you don’t know many of them personally, but I think it’s going to be a good time. I feel like they’re all good guys and it will be good for me.

On getting to participate in the 3-on-3 format in the event
Yeah, it’s going to be fun. Since the league changed it to 3-on-3, I feel like the fans enjoy it a little bit more than the 5-on-5 game. For me it’s fun, it suits my game pretty well. It’s going to be a lot of fun and there’s a lot of good players out there, so it’s going to be a good time.

On the Skills Competition
I think I’m doing fastest skater, I would assume, that’s probably the one thing that fits my game the best. We’ll see who I end up going against, or what the event is, but there’s some fast guys out there. I’ll just try and keep up.

The Skills Competition is set for 4:30 PM Pacific Time and will be broadcast live on ESPN. The Skills Competition is set to run alongside the Ontario Reign’s game this evening in Grand Rapids, so we can use this post as a de-facto thread for both games.

The All-Star Game is scheduled for Noon Pacific on Saturday, and will be broadcast live on ABC, as well as HERE on ESPN+.