Although the NHL All-Star Game celebrated its 50th birthday in Toronto last year and just had its 51st playing at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado, most fans of the game don't know when the concept of all-stars playing as a group first began. It wasn't for the Ace Bailey Benefit Game (pictured) in Toronto in 1934. In fact, it was a quarter of a century earlier, in 1908, that the Montreal Wanderers played the best of the rest of the ECAHA (Eastern Canadian Amateur Hockey Association) in a benefit game for the late Hod Stuart.
Stuart had helped the Wanderers win the Stanley Cup in the winter of 1907, and just a few months later, at his cottage, dove off a deck into shallow waters. He broke his neck and died almost instantly. Although Bailey didn't die after being checked by Eddie Shore, the next two all-star games were benefit affairs, one for the late Babe Siebert (in 1937), and one for the great Howie Morenz (two years later).
 For those who wonder why the All-Stars of today don't hit, one has to look only to the first annual game, in 1947. Bill Mosienko took a soft but awkward check from Toronto's Jim Thomson, broke his ankle, and missed the first 20 games of the NHL season. Since then, no one has wanted to risk a career for the sake of a glorified exhibition game. The very next year, however, in an otherwise timid match, Gus Mortson of the Cup-winning Leafs and Detroit's Gordie Howe (pictured with Bobby Hull) got into a fight, one of only two such fistic ventures in the Game's history (the other being a Red Kelly-Bert Olmstead dustup in 1953).
The Red Wings had an incredible record of 2-0-1 in games against the best of the rest during their domination in the first half of the 1950s, and even more amazing was Ted Lindsay. He played in a total of eleven All-Star Games during his career, never once on the losing side! At the other end of the scale was Stan Mikita in the 1960s. In Original Six days, a player couldn't participate in the Game unless he had signed a contract. This had proved over and over to be a great bargaining chip for dictatorial general managers, who used the game as leverage during heated contract negotiations. But three times Mikita passed up the All-Star Game because he refused to cave in and sign a deal he was unhappy with. In 1962, the Black Hawks offered the Maple Leafs one million dollars for Frank Mahovlich during the All-Star festivities, an offer Toronto passed up. Led by the Big M's scoring, the Leafs went on to win three more Stanley Cups in the next five years.
In 1967 the Game became a mid-season affair, and it produced what is still the only shutout in All-Star history, a 3-0 whitewash of the Stars by the Cup-champion Habs. Surprisingly, the goalies who shared the shutout were lesser lights Gary Bauman and Charlie Hodge.
MVP honours began in 1962 with none other than Eddie Shack stealing the glory in a game featuring an astounding 23 future Hall of Famers. Greg Polis in 1973 was another unlikely MVP, though in recent years more expected players have dominated, Wayne Gretzky (pictured) and Mario Lemieux (pictured with Peter Forsberg at 2001 Game) each winning three times (and Gretzky representing a different league team in each instance).
There have been more goals scored since 1984 (240 in the last 16 All-Star Games) than there were from 1947 to 1983 (237 in the first 34), this most recent in Denver setting a record with 26 in one game (won 14-12 by North America). The "glitter game" may not be intense, but it does feature the most skilled offensive players on the planet. And we do know one thing for sure: each year there are six players going all out, namely the goalies, even though it might not seem like it!
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