LAS VEGAS -- The NHL's All-Star Game has undergone a lot of changes over the years.
The first All-Star Game was held back in 1934, serving as a fundraiser to benefit Maple Leafs forward Ace Bailey, who suffered a career-ending injury during the 1933-34 season. The Maple Leafs faced off against a team of the league's best players at Maple Leaf Gardens. The first NHL-sanctioned All-Star Game was held in 1947, with the reigning Stanley Cup champions taking on the best players from the remaining five teams.
The format's taken on a number of changes in the time since -- First Team All-Stars vs. Second Team All-Stars, East vs. West, North America vs. the World, teams divided by a fantasy draft, and finally the current iteration, which features teams from each of the four divisions competing in a three-on-three tournament. The skills competition was first added in the 1990 All-Star Game held in Pittsburgh, and the types of skills featured in the competition have varied greatly over the years.
Some great moments have stemmed from some of the changes.
Here's a look back at some of the most entertaining, funny, or just feel-good moments from All-Star Games in years past that go beyond just the impressive showings from the league's stars in the games or skills competitions.
KESSEL PICKED LAST
The NHL went away from the geographic-based teams for the 2011 All-Star Game, instead dividing up the teams in a fantasy draft.
Nick Lidstrom captained one team along with assistants Patrick Kane and Martin St. Louis, and Eric Staal captained the other along with Mike Green and Ryan Kesler as his assistants.
The remaining players were picked one-by-one in the draft, until just two players were left on the draft floor: A nervous-looking Paul Stastny and a giggly Phil Kessel.
Staal chose Stastny with his last pick, leaving Kessel as the last man standing, much to the amusement of Alex Ovechkin and others.
Kessel was given a new car for his troubles.
OVECHKIN NEEDS A CAR
Ovechkin must have kept that picture he took of Kessel and used it for inspiration a few years later.
It was a running gag throughout the 2015 fantasy draft that Ovechkin wanted to be the last pick, so he could get the free car like Kessel received in 2011.
Nick Foligno and Jonathan Toews were the captains that year, and they actually made it seem like Ovechkin might get his wish. Ovechkin was one of the last three players available, and it was Foligno's turn to pick. Foligno handed the reigns over to Kane, and you could hear the back-and-forth over who they should pick on the broadcast. Kane said "Who cares? What's he going to do?" and announced Ovechkin as the pick:
COYNE SCHOFIELD MAKES HISTORY
Team USA forward Kendall Coyne Schofield made history in 2019 as the first women to take part in the NHL's All-Star skills competition.
Nate MacKinnon had originally been scheduled to take part in the fastest skater event, but withdrew from the event due to a bruised foot. He requested that Coyle Schofield take his place.
She posted a time of 14.226, finishing seventh of the eight players participating. Her time also ranked better than three NHL players who participated the previous year (Zach Werenski, 14.250; Noah Hanifin, 14.317, and Josh Bailey, 14.413).
"It shows the top players -- men or women -- belong," Coyne Schofield said of her time.
HOWE'S FINAL ALL-STAR GAME
Gordie Howe's final All-Star Game in 1980 was fittingly held in the city in which he spent 25 years, Detroit.
Howe, playing with the Whalers in their inaugural NHL season, received a lengthy standing ovation from the Joe Louis Arena crowd.
JOHN SCOTT, MVP
The John Scott saga is one of the greatest stories to come out of any All-Star Game, and the league did everything it could to try to prevent it from happening.
A fan-led campaign to vote the enforcer into the game took off, and Scott was voted in as captain of the Pacific Division, having only scored one point in 11 games with the Coyotes that season.
As Scott wrote in a Player's Tribune article, the NHL tried hard to keep him from going. He said that he was asked to put out a statement asking that fans vote for his teammates and not him. He said that someone from the NHL, who he did not name in the article, asked him, “Do you think this is something your kids would be proud of?” in a phone call in an attempt to dissuade him. Scott was traded out of the division to Montreal and then sent to the AHL, a move that didn't make much sense on its own, and was believed to be an attempt to make him ineligible to play.
The NHL finally relented and announced that Scott would be eligible to play.
Scott scored two goals in the semifinal round, and his Pacific Division team won the championship. The MVP voting was held over social media, and the NHL didn't include Scott among the list of candidates. After overwhelming support from fans, as well as other NHL players and teams, the NHL finally got out of its own way and allowed Scott to be named MVP, putting a bow on the whole story:
OWEN NOLAN CALLS HIS SHOT
Part of what makes the All-Star Game great is when players aren't afraid to do something flashy that they wouldn't dare do in a real game.
One of the more memorable instances of this is in the 1997 game, when the Sharks' Owen Nolan pointed and called his shot as he was skating in with the puck on his stick. He delivered, completing a hat trick in front of the home crowd:
SUBBAN SALUTES 68
The popular breakaway challenge is back in the skills competition this year for the first time since 2016.
Originally intended to be a trick shot competition or a way for players to show off their hands, some players went a different direction with the "creative" aspect of it, breaking out props and costumes for their shot.
In the last breakaway challenge before the NHL put it on hiatus, P.K. Subban broke out a wig and a No. 68 jersey to pay tribute to Jaromir Jagr, much to the delight of Jagr himself, who was playing in his last All-Star Game in the NHL:
GOALIE RACES
It's easy to see why the league stopped doing this after just one year, but it was still one of the funniest parts of the skills competition when it happened.
The fastest skater competition is one of the skills competition's mainstays. Having two goalies take part in full gear was a short-lived part of that segment, only taking place in the 2011 competition, with Cam Ward and Tim Thomas going head-to-head. It was surely a little dangerous, given that goaltenders never have to whip around corners like that at full speed in any other circumstance. But it was definitely a ton of fun to watch:
Did I leave off one of your favorites? Make sure to share it in the comments below.