NHL All-Star Game

The National Hockey League All-Star Game (Match des Étoiles de la Ligue Nationale de Hockey) is an exhibition ice hockey game that is traditionally held at the midway point of the regular season of the National Hockey League (NHL), with many of the league's star players playing against each other. The game's proceeds benefit the pension fund of the players.

Current format
The starting lineup for the two teams, the Eastern Conference All-Stars and the Western Conference All-Stars, where the "first team" or starting line, including the starting goaltender, is voted on by fans, while the remainder of the teams' rosters are chosen by the NHL's Hockey Operations Department in consultation with the teams' General Managers. Since 1996, the head coaches for the two All-Star teams have been the coaches of the two teams that are leading their respective conferences in point percentage (i.e. fraction of points obtained out of total possible points). Prior policy saw the two head coaches that appeared in the previous year's Stanley Cup Finals coaching the All-Star teams.

The All-Star Game is preceded by the NHL All-Star Skills Competition, a competition showing the various talents of the all-stars, and the NHL YoungStars Game, an exhibition game not exclusively featuring rookies, playing under slightly modified rules.

Benefit games
The first official All-Star Game was held during the 1947–48 NHL season. Prior to that, there have been several occasions when benefit games and All-Star Games were played.

Hod Stuart Benefit All-Star Game
The first All-Star game in ice hockey predates the NHL. It was played on January 2, 1908, before 3,500 fans at the Montreal Arena between the Montreal Wanderers and a team of All-Stars players from the teams the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association. It was held in memory of Montreal Wanderers player Hod Stuart, who had drowned three months after the Wanderers won the Stanley Cup in 1907. The proceeds of that game (over $2,000) went to Stuart's family.

Ace Bailey Benefit Game


On December 12, 1933, Toronto's King Clancy tripped Boston's Eddie Shore, and in retaliation, Shore hit the Leafs' Ace Bailey from behind, flipping him over backwards. Bailey hit his head on the ice so hard that a priest in attendance gave him last rites. Bailey lived for almost 60 more years, but his playing career was over. Shore was suspended for 16 games of a 48 game season for the hit.

As a benefit for Bailey and his family, the NHL held its first ever All-Star game on February 14, 1934. The game was held at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, during which Bailey's #6 uniform was retired by the Leafs. It was the first number to be retired in the NHL. The game saw the Leafs battle against an All-Star team made of players from the other seven teams, which the Leafs won 7–3. One of the more memorable moments before the game was when Bailey presented Shore with his All-Star jersey, showing to the public that Bailey had clearly forgiven him for his actions. Bailey also presented a trophy to NHL President Frank Calder before the game in the hope that the trophy would go to the winner of an annual All-Star Game for the benefit of injured players.

Howie Morenz Memorial Game
Howie Morenz was one of the NHL's superstars of the 1930s. However, his career, and eventually life, ended in a game between his Montreal Canadiens and the Chicago Black Hawks on January 28, 1937, at the Montreal Forum. In that game, Morenz was checked by Chicago player Earl Seibert into the boards in what seemed like a normal hit. However, as the boards were made of wood at the time, Morenz's leg shattered in five separate locations above the ankle. He was carried off the ice on a stretcher to a hospital, where he died, not because of the leg injury, but because of his family, friends, and a legion of fans, all of whom wanted to wish him well. At one time, one visitor noted that it was as if a party was being held inside of Morenz's hospital room, complete with whiskey and beer. Morenz died on March 8 the same year, from, as teammate Aurele Joliat put it, "a broken heart" (Morenz suffered a heart attack the night before). Morenz's #7 sweater, which had been hanging in its usual stall while he was in hospital, was finally retired for good.

While Morenz was in the hospital, plans for a game for Morenz's benefit were already under way. However, the game was not as successful as Bailey's game, partially because it took place many months after Morenz's passing (on November 3 at the Forum) and partially because Morenz had not survived. The game saw two All-Star teams, the first being a team of stars from the Canadiens and the Montreal Maroons, the second being an All-Star team made of players from the other teams, with the latter team winning 6–5.

Babe Siebert Memorial Game
On August 25, 1939, Babe Siebert, former player and recently-named head coach of the Montreal Canadiens, drowned in Lake Huron. To benefit his family, the Canadiens and Montreal Maroons organized a benefit, held on October 29, 1939 at the Montreal Forum. 6,000 fans attended a game between the Canadiens and the "NHL All-Stars", raising CA$15,000 (CA$0 in 2024 dollars) for Siebert's family. The All-Stars won the game 5–2.

Official games
Despite Bailey's hopes of an annual All-Star Game, it did not become an annual tradition until the 1947–48 NHL season. Since then, the All-Star Game has been played every year, except in 1966, when the All-Star Game was moved from the start of the season to its current position in the middle of the season, 1979 with the Challenge Cup series replacing the game, 1987 with Rendez-vous '87 replacing it, 1995 with the season shortened by a lockout, and 2005 when the season was canceled altogether because of another lockout. As part of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) ending this lockout, the NHL will not hold an All-Star Game during Winter Olympic years, meaning there was no All-Star Game during the 2005–06 NHL season, the first held under the new CBA, and the 2009-10 NHL season.

1940s
Both parts of Bailey's vision would, however, come true: The first game of the annual tradition, and the first official NHL All-Star Game, would be played in Maple Leaf Gardens, on October 13, 1947. The format of the All-Star Game, which remained the same, with two exceptions, until the 1967–68 NHL season, called for the defending Stanley Cup champions to play against a selection of players from the other five teams. For the first year, the All-Stars were a team comprising of the First and Second NHL All-Star teams (not to be confused with the All-Stars that played against the Cup champions), as well as three players from the New York Rangers and one player each from the Detroit Red Wings and the Chicago Black Hawks.

For the game, the Gardens facilities were upgraded to use glass on the boards (in an era where wire fences were the norm), a point that fans complained about as the sounds of the checks were somewhat muted. In what would be another tradition, the defending Cup champions were presented before the game with various gifts that included sweater coats, golf balls, cigarette boxes, ties, cufflinks, pocket knives, watches, and lifetime passes to the Maple Leaf Gardens. All-in-all, the game was a success, with the All-Stars winning 4–3.

Although the All-Star Game called for the defending Cup champion to host it, the game was held in Chicago Stadium in its second year as a consequence of the negotiations that set up the first game. Also as a peculiarity as a result of the scheduling, the game was held not before the season started (as was the case before and would be for almost 20 years following the game), but three weeks into the season. Like the year before, players from the First and Second NHL All-Star teams were automatically awarded spots on the All-Star Game rosters (an exception was Leafs goalie Turk Broda, having won the Cup, played for the Leafs instead), with the rest of the all-stars being assembled so that each team was represented with at least three players on the All-Stars. As for the game itself, the All-Stars had won 3–1 with all of the scoring done in the second period.

1950s
The defending Cup champions would win their first All-Star Game in 1950 by a 7–1 margin, thanks to Detroit's Production Line and the fact that five of the First and Second NHL All-Star teams were Red Wings. Because of the one-sidedness of the game, many fans and hockey insiders considered options on how to make the All-Star Game more balanced, including one where the All-Star Game was eliminated altogether in favour of a best-of-nine Stanley Cup Final with the proceeds of two of the games going to the players' pension fund, and one which saw a Canadian Teams vs. American Teams format (a somewhat-flawed concept in that nearly all NHL players of the era, whether playing for teams representing U.S. or Canadian cities, were Canadians). Ultimately, the 5th NHL All-Star Game saw the First NHL All-Star team battle the Second, with the players filling out the First team being from American teams and the Second team being filled with either Hab or Leaf players. The game ended in a 2–2 tie, leaving many fans upset for the second straight year. The same format of First vs. Second with the First team being augmented by players from American teams and the Second being augmented by Leaf or Hab players continued the next year, but the 6th All-Star Game proved to be 60 minutes of boring hockey as the teams skated to a 1–1 tie.

Criticisms of this new format, as well as the boring hockey, was what made the NHL revert the format of the All-Star Game to its original incarnation. Some of the criticisms included the fact that teammates often opposed each other in the All-Star Game under the new format, and some stated that the early date of the game was detrimental to the exposure of the NHL in the States, being held at the same time as the World Series and the National Football League season. In what would be later a reality, Toronto Star columnist Red Burnett suggested that the game should be played mid-season and that fans should choose their starting lineup, a system which had long been in use in the States with regard to Major League Baseball.

1960s
The game was moved from the start of the season to mid-season in the 1966–67 NHL season as part of the move to promote the NHL to six new cities who would have their own teams. Because of the move to mid-season, the method of player selection for the All-Stars, largely unchanged for 20 years, was much scrutinized, as playing the All-Star Game mid-season meant that the First and Second All-Star teams were decided almost a full year before the game itself, and that by mid-season, the Cup winners were a vastly different team from the team that had won the Cup some eight or nine months before. The mid-season move also meant that rookies with outstanding first years, such as Bobby Orr, would be shut out of the game even if they deserved a spot on the All-Stars.

The 21st All-Star Game a year later was somber compared to the 20 before it, as the days before the game were tragic. On January 14, 1968, two days before the game, Bill Masterton had been checked by two Oakland Seals players and died from his on-ice injuries. The game itself was overshadowed by the debate on whether helmets should be worn in the NHL in the fallout of Masterton's untimely death. As in the previous years, the All-Stars were represented by the First and Second All-Star teams, as well as enough players so that each team was represented. The East-West format of future all-star games was announced in the 21st All-Star Game, with the intention of being able to move the game anywhere, alternating home ice between an East division team and a West division team year after year. The idea, along with the notion that the players chosen for the two All-Star teams should be the best at the time of the game rather than the best of the players from the season before, quickly gained popularity, although the Cup champions reserved the right to host the 22nd All-Star Game. The St. Louis Blues became the first Western host of the All-Star Game the following year. The 26th All-Star Game was the first in which the game MVP received a car as a prize.

1970s
With the realignment of the NHL into four divisions for the 1974-1975 season, the 1975 All-Star Game was the first to pit the Wales Conference against the Campbell Conference.

In 1978, amidst renewed interest in international hockey, the NHL decided to replace the 1979 All-Star Game with a three-game series where the best the NHL had to offer faced off against the best the Soviet Union had to offer in the Challenge Cup.

The Challenge Cup was being touted as a miniature world championship, and for the first time, fans could vote for certain members of the roster. The NHL would lose the three-game series two games to one, with the third game being lost by an embarrassing 6–0 margin.

Over the next few years, various aspects of the All-Star Game came under scrutiny, including the format of the game. To make things worse, the All-Star Game itself was viewed in some circles as a bad thing, with players opting out of the game in favour of the rest and prospective hosts repeatedly declining to host the event.

1980s
With the geographical realignment of the NHL for the 1981-1982 season, the 1982 All-Star Game was the first between the Wales and Campbell Conferences that featured players from eastern teams against players from western teams.

The 37th All-Star Game in 1985 marked the first time that honorary captains were selected for each team. The game also brought forth the notion of fan balloting of the starting lineup (already adopted in the National Basketball Association and by this time had returned, following a hiatus brought on by ballot box stuffing, to Major League Baseball; the National Football League gave the fans the vote in the 1990s), as the game was suffering from having little media coverage. The idea came into fruition the following year.

In 1987, the All-Star Game was pre-empted in favour of Rendez-vous '87, held at Le Colisée in Quebec City. Like the Challenge Cup before it, Rendez-Vous '87 was an event where the best the NHL could offer played against a Soviet squad which had an entire year to prepare. To reduce the possibility of the NHL being embarrassed again, Rendez-Vous '87 was a two-game affair. The series was split between the two teams with a game apiece.

During the series, NHL president John Ziegler stated that Soviet players would never be able to join the NHL because of the way the Soviet hockey programme worked, and that NHLers would never be able to play in the Winter Olympics, both of which, as events would turn out, would eventually happen.

1990s
The NHL All-Star Skills Competition and the Heroes of Hockey game were both introduced in the 41st All-Star Game in 1990. The Heroes of Hockey game featured NHL alumni and was set up much like the main game, with Wales vs. Campbell. However, it should be noted that many of these players retired before the introduction of the Wales and Campbell Conferences. Future Heroes of Hockey games would have the hometown alumni play against the "best-of-the-rest", much like the all-star games of old. The 42nd All-Star Game introduced, as part of the player selection, two players chosen by the commissioner to honour their years to their game.

With the renaming of conferences and divisions on a geographical basis for the 1993-1994 season, the 1994 All-Star Game was the first between East and West in name since 1974, although the Wales vs. Campbell format pitted east against west from 1982 to 1993.

The 46th All-Star Game in 1995 was a casualty of the 1994–95 NHL lockout, which shortened that season to just 48 regular-season games. San Jose, which was to host that game, was awarded the 1997 game instead.

The 48th All-Star Game in 1998 saw the first change in format in years to promote the first Olympic hockey tournament where NHL players could participate. This format, which was used for five years, saw a team of North American All-Stars taking on a team of players who were not from North America known as the World All Stars. The format was not without its critics, some of which suggested replacing the game with a miniature national tournament, in the style of the World Cup of Hockey. Many fans also weren't happy with the system, especially some Canadian fans, who resented having a team with 75% Canadian players labeled "North America." The "First International Showdown", as it was billed, saw the North Americans win 8–7.

2000s
In 2003, the game reverted back to its classic East vs. West format. Dany Heatley scored four goals, tying an All-Star Game record, plus a shootout goal. Heatley also set the record for being the youngest player to score a hat trick in the All-Star Game, a record previously held by the Edmonton Oilers' Wayne Gretzky. This shootout, the first of its kind in the NHL in the modern era, received an enthusiastic, frenzied response from the crowd when it was announced, and carried on during the event. This was influential in the later decision to decide regular season games tied after overtime with a shootout, thus eliminating tie games.

The All-Star Game was dealt two serious blows in 2005. Not only was the game canceled along with the rest of the season as a result of the 2004–05 NHL lockout, but the subsequent collective bargaining agreement that ended the lockout stipulated that heretofore the game was to be held only in non-Olympic years. Thus, there was no All-Star Game in the 2005–06 NHL season either.

After a two-season absence, the 2007 game was played in Dallas. The West defeated the East 12–9; Danny Briere of the Buffalo Sabres recorded a goal and four assists and was named the game's Most Valuable Player.

The Atlanta Thrashers hosted the 2008 game (they were originally scheduled to host the canceled 2005 game). The Eastern Conference won the game 8–7 on a late game-winning goal by Marc Savard with 20.9 seconds remaining in the third period, beating St. Louis Blues goaltender Manny Legace. Eric Staal was named the MVP.

In 2009, the Bell Centre (Montreal Canadiens) hosted the All-Star Game as well as the 2009 NHL Entry Draft. The Eastern Conference defeated the Western Conference 12-11 in a shootout (east 2/3 west 0/2). Approximately 21,000 people attended the game, where then Canadien Alexei Kovalev was named the MVP with 2 goals and 1 assist, as well as the shootout winner. Montreal hockey fans voted Kovalev into the starting lineup, in addition to teammates Andrei Markov, Carey Price, and Mike Komisarek. The Canadiens were picked to host both events because the Montreal Canadiens team celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2009. The team was established in 1909 as a founding member of the National Hockey Association (NHA) which became the NHL in 1917.

Future
There was no All-Star Game in 2010, because of the change in the collective bargaining agreement, and due to 2010 being an Olympic Games year. The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver mark the first time that the Olympics have been hosted in an NHL market since the NHL allowed its players to compete therein.

The 2011 All-Star Game will be played in Raleigh, North Carolina, home of the Carolina Hurricanes. Gary Bettman announced at the RBC Center on April 8, 2010 that the game will be held in Raleigh. The Phoenix Coyotes were slated to host the 2006 game that was scheduled before the NHL decided not to hold the game during Olympic years. Amid fears that the Coyotes franchise will not right its ship by February 2011, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, and Ottawa rose as candidates for the 2011 game. Raleigh won out, having been promised the game since the Hurricanes reached 12,000 season ticket sales earlier this decade.

The 2012 All-Star Game will be played at Scotiabank Place in Ottawa, home of the Ottawa Senators. This will be the Senators' first-ever hosting of the game, which will coincide with the 20th anniversary of the Senators returning to the NHL.

Results
Note
 * Anaheim, Phoenix, Nashville, and Columbus, are the only current NHL cities that have not yet hosted an NHL All-Star Game.

Most appearances

 * Gordie Howe, 23 times.
 * Ray Bourque, 19 times.
 * Wayne Gretzky, 18 times.
 * Frank Mahovlich, 15 times.
 * Paul Coffey, 15 times.
 * Mark Messier, 15 times.
 * Glenn Hall, 13 times.
 * Al MacInnis, 13 times
 * Joe Sakic, 12 times. (elected to the team 13 times, was injured in 1997)
 * Terry Sawchuk, 11 times.
 * Patrick Roy, 11 times.
 * Mario Lemieux, 10 times.
 * Jari Kurri, 10 times.
 * Steve Yzerman, 10 times.
 * Teemu Selanne†, 10 times.
 * Nicklas Lidstrom†, 10 times.
 * Martin Brodeur†, 9 times. (elected to the team 10 times, had a family obligation in 2008)
 * Mats Sundin, 9 times.