48th National Hockey League All-Star Game
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The 48th National Hockey League All-Star Game took place at General Motors Place in Vancouver, British Columbia, home to the Vancouver Canucks, on January 18, 1998.
[edit] The International Showdown
The 48th game was held in the very same year as the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, providing the NHL to show its players from all over the world. To this extent, the NHL had the all-star teams consist of a team of North Americans playing against a team of stars from the rest of the world. The format change also helped to intensify the game, as national pride would also become a factor. These provisions only applied to the players - coaches would still be selected based on which teams were the best from each conference at the time of the break.
The Canadian Hockey Association took the all-star weekend as a way of assembling their team as a tuneup for the Olympics by inviting all 23 of its players and immersing them in what they would see at the Olympics. As the 1998 Olympics would also feature the first-ever Olympic women's hockey tournament, an exhibition game between the Canadian national women's hockey team and the American national women's hockey team was also scheduled as part of the all-star festivities.
The weekend also saw its usual share of radical ideas and for various hockey persons to vent out their frustrations: most notably, Bob Clarke used it as a way of trying to convince others not to use the neutral zone trap, a dreaded defensive play that epitomized boring hockey at the time. As the NHL was being outclassed in terms of revenue by other major sports, some such as Bob Gainey also proposed to change the rules so that a game consisted of four 15-minute quarters rather than three 20-minute periods, an idea that was unpopular among hockey's elite. Others vented their frustrations about the poor ice quality found in certain arenas, especially in the South, where the ice could melt easily.
[edit] Boxscore
| North America | 13 | 17 | 13 | 43 |
| World | 7 | 11 | 11 | 29 |
- Referee: Paul Stewart
- Linesmen: Mike Cvik, Shane Heyer
- MVP: Teemu Selänne, Anaheim Mighty Ducks
- Attendance: 18,422
- Television: FOX, CBC, SRC
[edit] See also
| Preceded by 47th NHL All-Star Game |
NHL All-Star Game | Succeeded by 49th NHL All-Star Game |
