Complete Guide to the 2015 NHL All-Star Game

Welcome to the 2015 NHL All-Star Game in Columbus, Ohio, home of the NHL’s Blue Jackets and birthplace of food criminal Guy Fieri.

This showcase of the world’s best hockey players (and other guys who have to be here since the NHL wants one representative from every team) has been two years in the making. Columbus was originally slated to host the All-Star Game in 2013, but the league’s third lockout in 18 years led to the cancellation of festivities.

There was no All-Star Game last year, either, as NHL players participated in the Sochi Olympics. 

At long last, your tepid interest and lukewarm feelings about the NHL All-Star Game will be rewarded!

The 60th NHL All-Star Game is arguably the sixth-biggest hockey event in the nearly 15 years of Nationwide Arena, right behind the Blue Jackets’ first-ever five home postseason games and slightly ahead of the 2007 Draft, which saw Patrick Kane, James van Riemsdyk and Kyle Turris go 1-2-3. 

The Blue Jackets took All-Star right wing Jakub Voracek with the seventh pick that year and turned him into 39 games of Jeff Carter, in case you’re looking for insight into how a 13-year-old franchise has played only five home playoff games. 

There’s so much more to learn about the 2015 NHL All-Star Game. Let’s go on a journey of education and fun, shall we?

The stars who aren’t here 

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Sidney Crosby was set to play in just his second career All-Star Game, as injuries and Olympics limited him to one appearance in 2007. But a lower-body ailment, announced late Thursday, will once again keep the sport’s biggest star from participating in the weekend.

Penguins teammate Evgeni Malkin, who missed his team’s final two games before the break with an injury, was also forced to pull out. 

Injuries have also forced Sergei Bobrovsky, Pekka Rinne, Erik Johnson and Jimmy Howard from the festivities.

It hasn’t only been unfortunate injuries that have hurt the overall star power of this game—the NHL’s unfortunate policy of having one player from each team has also done damage. 

P.K. Subban, Erik Karlsson, Nicklas Backstrom, Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Lundqvist are all enjoying a vacation despite having compelling cases to be in Columbus, either for their numbers, personalities, on-ice skills or all three.

What’s the point of this game?

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Well, money. What’s the point of anything? Sponsors pour money into the game, which trickles into the pockets of the league and its players. It’s simple economics.

Did you know the first All-Star Game was also about money, but for an entirely different reason?

In 1908, the Montreal Wanderers faced an All-Star team from the Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association in Montreal in honor of Hod Stuart, a Wanderer player who drowned not long after the team won the Stanley Cup in 1907. The money from that event was donated to Stuart’s family.

Nowadays, the money goes to players in the form of bonuses and the league in the form of sponsorship cash, but it’s not all greed and gluttony.

The NHL was part of a charitable initiative with Ronald McDonald House that resulted in a $190,000 donation. 

"I think this is what you enjoy the most," Foligno said Friday morning to media. "Obviously you play and you get to be in the spotlight, but these are the reasons that you want to give back and use that spotlight back for good. To see those kids' faces when they walked into the tree house … it was so gratifying. What they're going through, to be able to help them … for even 10 minutes is so gratifying. It is outstanding to see what they've done here." 

Explain this weird format to me, Dave

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The NHL has changed its format a lot over the years in an attempt to generate more interest, bucking the usual East-West trend for several years for a World vs. North America game, then going back to East-West.

There was also a time when the reigning Stanley Cup champions would play an All-Star team the following season, something Drew Doughty wasn’t all that enthralled about when asked Friday.

For a third straight year, a fantasy draft involving the players choosing sides has been the format. The draft was held Friday between captains Jonathan Toews of the Chicago Blackhawks and Nick Foligno of the hometown Blue Jackets. It allows for NHL teammates to play against each other and hijinks to ensue during the draft. 

For the first time ever Friday, there was a trade mid-draft when Team Toews shipped Phil Kessel to Team Foligno in exchange for Tyler Seguin in the most hilarious trade in sports history. For the uninitiated, Kessel was traded to Toronto in 2009 for a first-round pick that became Seguin.

It’s still the same run-and-gun, offense-first game it’s always been, only now mixed allegiances create unique matchups.

What’s the best part of the weekend?

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It’s the skills competition on Saturday. Without question.

Here are the events and order in which they will happen: Fastest Skater, Breakaway Challenge, Shooting Accuracy, Skills Challenge Relay, Hardest Shot and Shootout.

For my money, the Breakaway Challenge, Shooting Accuracy and Shootout events are the ones you need to watch. “Skills Relay Challenge” sounds way more exciting than it actually is.

Since Zdeno Chara isn’t here, it’s Shea Weber’s title to lose in the Hardest Shot challenge. Dustin Byfuglien has an outside shot, but Weber has driven pucks through nets and is a mortal lock to win this year.

Everything else is sort of a toss-up and the participants in each event aren’t known at this time, but I’ll take Patrice Bergeron if he’s in the accuracy event. I’ll also go with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in the fastest skater showdown. 

Would you like to offer a prediction? 

Of course!

Looking at the rosters, I think Team Foligno has the edge in every area. I even like the Kessel-Seguin trade for Foligno as they had too many centers on the roster at that point anyway.

So, without further ado…

Team Foligno 11, Team Toews 8

MVP: Ryan Johansen