2019 NHL All-Star Game

**The 2019 NHL All-Star Game** was held on January 26, 2019 at the SAP Center in San Jose, California (home of the San Jose Sharks); the last time that San Jose last held the NHL All Star Game was back in 1997.

It was the fourth consecutive All-Star Game that used a four-team, 3-on-3, single elimination format, with one team representing each of the league's four divisions.

After years of being held on a Sunday, the 2019 All-Star Game was played on a Saturday, January 26, at 5:00 p.m. PST / 8:00 p.m. EST, while the Skills Competition was also moved from its traditional Saturday night to Friday, January 25, 2019.

The Metropolitan All-Stars won the All-Star Game, which was in its fourth straight year of a four-team, 3-on-3, single elimination format, with one team representing each of the league's four divisions. The team won $1 million (split 11 ways between the players).

Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins was named the Most Valuable Player, scoring four goals and four assists. He received a new 2019 Honda Passport which he then proceeded to give to an Army veteran.

## Skills Competition

The Skills Competition took place the day before the All-Star Game on Friday January 25, 2019 at the SAP Center. The winners of each event were awarded $25,000 in prize money.

The NHL invited Renata Fast & Rebecca Johnston from the Canadian Women's National Team, and Brianna Decker & Kendall Coyne Schofield from the U.S. Women's National Team, to demonstrate some of the events.

After Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche (Central Division) pulled out of the fastest-skater event due to a bruised left foot, Coyne Schofield was named as his replacement, becoming the first woman to compete in the All-Stars skills competition.

Brianna Decker demonstrated the premier passer skill, but she was not part of the competition. She was in fact three seconds faster than Leon Draisaitl and would have won had her time been included as they did with Kendall Coyne Schofield; this prompted the hashtag #PayDecker on Twitter, as women's hockey salaries are a fraction of men's hockey salaries.

On January 26, 2019, hockey equipment company CCM announced they would give Decker the $25,000 she would have received for winning the competition.

### Results

**Fastest Skater**

**Puck Control Play**

**Save Streak**

**Premier Passer**

**Hardest Shot**

**Accuracy Shooting**

## Uniforms

The All-Star uniforms for this game were created by Adidas Parley; the partnership between Adidas and the environmental organization Parley for the Oceans produces products made with plastic ocean debris.

Also for the first time, the uniforms featured each player's respective team logo on the front instead of the NHL shield or conference logo.

## Game Summaries

**First semifinal game** (January 26, 2019)

* Central Division defeated Pacific Division 10-4.

**Second semifinal game** (January 26, 2019)

* Metropolitan Division defeated Atlantic Division 7-4.

**Final** (January 26, 2019)

* Metropolitan defeated Central Division 10-5.

## Rosters

As in the previous three All-Star Games, captaincy of each division was determined by a fan vote, the 2019 vote running from December 1, 2018, until December 23, 2018. On December 27, 2018, the four captains were announced by the NHL.

For the third straight year, Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers was selected to captain the Pacific Division, along with first time captains Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs for the Atlantic Division & Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche for the Central Division.

Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals was selected for the Metropolitan Division, but he opted to abstain from the game to rest.

Fans were also permitted, after most of the rest of the rosters were set) to vote for a "Last Man In" for each division. The Last Men In: Jeff Skinner (Atlantic), Gabriel Landeskog (Central), Kris Letang (Metropolitan) and Leon Draisaitl (Pacific) were announced on January 11, 2019.

On January 6, 2019, the coaches for the All-Star Game were announced, chosen from the team in each division with the highest points percentage through January 5, 2019, roughly the regular season's halfway point: Jon Cooper of the Tampa Bay Lightning (Atlantic), Todd Reirden of the Washington Capitals (Metropolitan), Paul Maurice of the Winnipeg Jets (Central) and Bill Peters of the Calgary Flames (Pacific).

### Eastern Conference

**Atlantic Division**

* Head coach: Jon Cooper, Tampa Bay Lightning
* Auston Matthews (Captain), Toronto Maple Leafs
* Jack Eichel, Buffalo Sabres
* Nikita Kucherov, Tampa Bay Lightning
* David Pastrnak, Boston Bruins
* Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay Lightning
* John Tavares, Toronto Maple Leafs
* Jeff Skinner, Buffalo Sabres
* Thomas Chabot, Ottawa Senators
* Keith Yandle, Florida Panthers
* Jimmy Howard, Detroit Red Wings
* Andrei Vasilevskiy, Tampa Bay Lightning

**Metropolitan Division**

* Head coach: Todd Reirden, Washington Capitals
* Sebastian Aho, Carolina Hurricanes
* Cam Atkinson, Columbus Blue Jackets
* Mathew Barzal, New York Islanders
* Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins
* Claude Giroux, Philadelphia Flyers
* Kyle Palmieri, New Jersey Devils
* John Carlson, Washington Capitals
* Seth Jones, Columbus Blue Jackets
* Kris Letang, Pittsburgh Penguins
* Braden Holtby, Washington Capitals
* Henrik Lundqvist, New York Rangers

### Western Conference

**Central Division**

* Head coach: Paul Maurice, Winnipeg Jets
* Nathan MacKinnon (Captain), Colorado Avalanche
* Patrick Kane, Chicago Blackhawks
* Ryan O'Reilly, St. Louis Blues
* Mikko Rantanen, Colorado Avalanche
* Mark Scheifele, Winnipeg Jets
* Blake Wheeler, Winnipeg Jets
* Gabriel Landeskog, Colorado Avalanche
* Miro Heiskanen, Dallas Stars
* Roman Josi, Nashville Predators
* Devan Dubnyk, Minnesota Wild
* Pekka Rinne, Nashville Predators

**Pacific Division**

* Head coach: Bill Peters, Calgary Flames
* Connor McDavid (Captain), Edmonton Oilers
* Johnny Gaudreau, Calgary Flames
* Clayton Keller, Arizona Coyotes
* Joe Pavelski, San Jose Sharks
* Elias Pettersson, Vancouver Canucks
* Leon Draisaitl, Edmonton Oilers
* Brent Burns, San Jose Sharks
* Drew Doughty, Los Angeles Kings
* Erik Karlsson, San Jose Sharks
* Marc-Andre Fleury, Vegas Golden Knights
* John Gibson, Anaheim Ducks

## Festivities & Entertainment

The 2019 NHL Fan Fair, featuring various fan activities during All-Star Weekend, was held between Thursday, January 24 and Sunday, January 27, 2019 at the San Jose Convention Center.

Country music artist Chad Brownlee performed the Canadian national anthem while singer Lauren Jauregui performed the U.S. national anthem.

Singer Bebe Rexha performed during the second intermission. The Stanford Band also performed during the game.

## Television

The NHL All-Star Game and skills competition were broadcast in the United States by NBC and NBCSN, respectively.

In Canada, both the All-Star Game and skills competition were broadcast In English on both CBC and Sportsnet (under the "Hockey Night in Canada" branding), and on TVA Sports in French.

The NHL conducted a trial of player and puck tracking during the All-Star Game with technology developed by one of the German Fraunhofer Institutes using transmitters embedded inside pucks and jerseys.

The technology enables on-air features such as speed displays, puck tracking graphics (reminiscent of the FoxTrax graphics utilized in the late 1990s by previous U.S. national NHL broadcaster Fox, developed by Sportvision), and marker graphics hovering above players.

Using the system, NBC and Sportsnet both showcased some tracking data on their respective broadcasts while NBC also offered a secondary broadcast of the game via its digital platforms to showcase expanded real-time statistics and other information.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman stated during All-Star weekend that the league planned to deploy the system to all 31 NHL arenas prior to the start of the 2019–20 NHL season.