NHL All-Star Game

Each year at around the mid-season point, the National Hockey League hosts their All-Star Game, to honor the top players in the league. The starters are voted in by the fans, and the remainder of the roster is selected by the NHL Hockey Operations Department.http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=543059

The NHL took a new approach to how players are distributed between the two teams for the 2011 NHL All-Star Game. Rather than separating teams by conference or nationality as used in the past, all players selected were allowed to vote for two players who will serve as team captains. These two players, Nick Lidstrom of the Detroit Red Wings and Eric Staal of the Carolina Hurricanes, used a school-yard pick system to select their teammates for the game.http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=543059 The 2011 NHL All-Star Game takes place on Sunday, January 30, 2011, starting at 4:00 p.m. EST. The game airs live on Versus, the NHL Network and CBC from the RBC Center, home to the Carolina Hurricanes, in Raleigh, North Carolina.http://www.nhl.com/ice/newsindex.htm?location=/allstar/2011

Between 1947 and 1968, the game featured the defending Stanley Cup champions against league all-stars. In 1979, game was replaced by the Challenge Cup, featuring a team of league all-stars facing the Soviet Union's Central Red Army team. In 1987, game was replaced by a two-game series against the Soviet Union's best players called "Rendez-Vous '87" — this was before Eastern Bloc countries allowed its players to play professionally.http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=29002

The 1995 and 2005 All-Star games were canceled due to NHL labor strikes. The 2006 and 2010 games were canceled because of NHL player participation in the Winter Olympics.http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=29002