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The first time the NHL gathered a team of its best players to play as a single unit was in 1934 for a benefit game for Irvine "Ace" Bailey, whose career was cut short by massive injuries suffered stemming from a check by Eddie Shore. That year, the All-Stars played Bailey's team, the Toronto Maple Leafs, with Toronto winning, 7-3. Two other benefit games were played in the 1930s -- games in memory of Howie Morenz and Babe Siebert, both of the Canadiens. The first official All-Star Game was played prior to the 1947-48 season. Through 1968, with the exception of 1951 and 1952, the format had been for the All-Stars to play the previous season's Stanley Cup champions. In 1951 and 1952, the All-Stars were split into two teams and squared off against one another. Both those games ended in ties. With the NHL expanding in 1967, the All-Star Game's format changed soon thereafter, with teams from opposing divisions -- and later conferences -- playing one another. In 1979 and 1987, the All-Star Game was replaced by a series of games between the NHL All-Stars and the Soviet Union national team. In 1979, it was a best-of-three series at Madison Square Garden, with the Soviets winning, two games to one. In 1987, it was a two-game series in Quebec City, with each team winning one. From 1998 to 2002, the format changed to one where All-Stars from the U.S. and Canada played the All-Stars from the rest of the world. That made for some interesting situations in which regular season teammates suddenly became All-Star Game opponents. Besides 1979 and 1987, there were a few other years in which the All-Star Game was not played. There was no All-Star Game in 1966, as the game shifted from pre-season to the middle of the season. Work stoppages led to the cancellations of All-Star Games in 1995 and 2005. And under the terms of the latest collective bargaining agreement, All-Star Games are not held in years in which NHL players compete in the Olympics. That led to the cancellation of the 2006 and 2010 All-Star games. |
