It’s hard to believe that it’s already almost the halfway mark of the 2016-17 NHL season, and with that always comes the NHL All-Star Game. Los Angeles gets to host this season, something that quite frankly is ridiculous seeing as LA had the honor in 2002 and there are teams that haven’t had the honor in decades and some that still haven’t ever. Whatever though, right? Even though the event is nothing more than a glorified joke, it’s always popular and very fun to watch. The League will continue with the 3v3 tournament format like last year and each of the League’s four divisions will have a team lead by a fan-voted captain. Each team has a coach from that division as well and every team in the League is represented by at least one player. The NHL revealed it’s official All-Star Game rosters this past week, they are as follows:
Team Pacific:
Coach- Peter DeBoer- Sharks.
F: Connor McDavid- Oilers (Captain), Jeff Carter- Kings, Johnny Gaudreau- Flames, Bo Horvat- Canucks, Ryan Kesler- Ducks, Joe Pavelski- Sharks.
D: Brent Burns- Sharks, Drew Doughty- Kings, Cam Fowler- Ducks.
G: Martin Jones- Sharks, Mike Smith- Coyotes.
Team Central:
Coach: Bruce Boudreau- Wild.
F: Patrick Kane- Blackhawks, Patrik Laine- Jets, Nathan MacKinnon- Avalanche, Tyler Seguin- Stars, Vladimir Tarasenko- Blues, Jonathan Toews- Blackhawks.
D: PK Subban- Predators (Captain), Duncan Keith- Blackhawks, Ryan Suter- Wild.
G: Corey Crawford- Blackhawks, Devan Dubnyk- Wild.
Team Metropolitan:
Coach: John Tortorella- Blue Jackets.
F: Sidney Crosby- Penguins (Captain), Taylor Hall- Devils, Evengi Malkin- Penguins, Alexander Ovechkin- Capitals, Wayne Simmonds- Flyers, John Tavares- Islanders.
D: Justin Faulk- Hurricanes, Ryan McDonagh- Rangers, Seth Jones- Blue Jackets.
G: Braden Holtby- Capitals, Sergei Bobrovsky- Blue Jackets.
Team Atlantic:
Coach: Micel Therrien- Canadiens.
F: Vincent Trocheck- Panthers, Frans Neilsen- Red Wings, Auston Matthews- Maple Leafs, Nikita Kucherov- Lightning, Brad Marchand- Bruins, Kyle Okposo- Sabres.
D: Shea Weber- Canadiens, Erik Karlsson- Senators, Victor Hedman- Lightning.
G: Carey Price- Canadiens (Captain), Tuukka Rask- Bruins.
The tournament will once again be single-game elimination. The two teams of each conference will face each other in the first two contests and the winner of those two games will battle for the championship. The Pacific Division defeated the Atlantic Division in the final last season is looking to repeat.
New this season, however, are the uniforms, which the NHL revealed on its Instagram page on Wednesday. Each team will wear its own jersey that is modeled after the colors that the host Kings have worn over the years.
The game will be preceded by the annual Skills Competition, which will be on Saturday the 28th at 7:00 PM ET. The game will be Sunday the 29th at 3:30 PM ET. Since this is the NHL’s centennial season, there will be numerous other festivities over the course of the weekend to celebrate that as well. including a revealing of the 100 greatest NHL players of all-time on Friday the 27th at 9:30 PM ET.
Both the Skills Competition and the Game itself will be televised on both NBCSN and CBC (if CBC is available in your area, I highly recommend it over the prior).
All-Star weekend is always a lot of fun. Don’t miss any of the action!