The 1998 NHL All-Star Game was arguably the lone positive in a season of negatives for Vancouver hockey fans. The Canucks, led by their new captain Mark Messier, finished dead last in the Western Conference and parted ways with many long-time Canucks. Trevor Linden, Kirk McLean, Gino Odjick and Pat Quinn would all depart the franchise in 1998, but at least the team had snazzy new uniforms …
The 1998 NHL All-Star game also happened to precede the NHL’s return to the Winter Olympic games in Nagano the following month. Sensing an effort to market the game globally, the league instituted an All-Star Game format that sought to create a sense of rivalry in the hopes that the players would actually give a damn about the All-Star Game for once. Introducing: Team North America (V. 1.0) and Team World.
January 16th:
January 17th:
The World All-Stars won the first Super Skills Competition in the new International All-Star format.
Event | Winner | Team | Record |
---|---|---|---|
Puck Control Relay | Teemu Selänne | Mighty Ducks of Anaheim | |
Fastest Skater | Scott Niedermayer | New Jersey Devils | 13.560 seconds |
Accuracy Shooting | Raymond Bourque [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/48th_National_Hockey_League_All-Star_Game']Peter Forsberg Brendan Shanahan |
Boston Bruins Colorado Avalanche Detroit Red Wings | 4 hits on 6 shots | ||
Hardest Shot | Al MacInnis | St. Louis Blues | 100.4 miles per hour |
Goaltenders Competition | Dominik Hašek | Buffalo Sabres | 3 goals against on 16 shots |
Viacheslav Fetisov and Igor Larionov talk during the skills competition during NHL All-Star Weekend at General Motors Palace in Vancouver, Canada. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Vinnick /Allsport
January 18th:
The Game
I'm sorry to say the only existing footage of the All-Star Game on YouTube is a highlight video of the game's Finnish participants. It is in Finnish. Embedding appears to be disabled, insultingly enough.
Selanne receives congratulations from NHL commissioner Gary Bettman after earning MVP honors in the 1998 NHL All-Star Game in Vancouver, British Columbia. Selanne, who had a hat trick for the World team in an 8-7 loss to the North America team, became the first European player to earn MVP honors and the first player from the losing team to win the award since 1986. (Rick Stewart/Getty Images)
Last edited: