History
The National Hockey held three benefit All-Star games during the 1930s. The first was staged at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens on Feb. 14, 1934, to benefit Ace Bailey of the Maple Leafs, who had suffered a skull fracture that nearly took his life.
Toronto beat a team of All-Stars from the other NHL teams, 7-3, in that game.
On Nov. 3, 1937, an All-Star team beat the Montreals, 6-5, in the Howie Morenz Memorial Game at the Forum. The Montreals team was made up of players from two Montreal teams, the Maroons and the Canadiens. Morenz had died in March of a heart attack while recuperating from a badly broken leg.
The third such game was the Babe Siebert Memorial Benefit, also played at the Forum, on Oct. 29, 1939. Seibert, a star with both Montreal teams, had drowned earlier that year at the age of 35. The NHL All-Stars beat the Canadiens, 5-3.
The first regular NHL All-Star Game was held in 1947. It was originally a pre-season game between the defending Stanley Cup champions and an All-Star team of players from the league's other five times.
For two years, 1951 and 1952, the first team all-stars played the second team all-stars, but in 1953 the game went back to its original format.
The NHL moved the game to mid-season in 1966-67, and in 1969 it became a contest between the East and West All-Stars, representing the Wales and Campbell Conferences from 1975 through 1993. From 1998 through 2002, the All-Star teams represented North America and the rest of the world. In 2003, the NHL went back to the East-West format.
Following the NBA's lead, the NHL added skills competition on the day before the All-Star game in 1990.