Liam Maguire with Wayne Gretzky, the first player in NHL history with a four goal game. And he scored them all in the same period.
1) What was the first year the NHL awarded a game MVP award at the All-Star game?
a) 1962 b) 1964 c) 1966
Answer
a) 1962. All the goal scoring was done in the first period of the 1962 game held at Maple Leaf Gardens on October 6, 1962 as the defending Cup champions, the Toronto Maple Leafs, beat the NHL All-Star team 4-1. Scoring the fourth Toronto goal was eventual game MVP Eddie Shack. Shack also recorded a pair of penalties including a roughing minor with Gordie Howe.
2) What two goaltenders shared the only full game shutout in NHL all-star history?
a) Glenn Hall + Jacques Plante b) Charlie Hodge + Gary Bauman c) Bernie Parent + Ken Dryden
Answer
b) Charlie Hodge + Gary Bauman. Hodge and Bauman were the goalies for the Montreal Canadiens when they shutout the All-Stars 3-0 in 1967. Hodge played the first and third periods, Bauman the second. Bauman was from Innsfail, Alberta and he would only play two games for the Canadiens that season and then parts of two other seasons with the Minnesota Northstars. This marked the first season where the game was switched to middle of the schedule. Henri Richard was the game MVP.
3) Gordie Howe remains the oldest player to participate in an NHL all-star game at the age of 51. The game was played on February 5, 1980 in Detroit at the Joe Louis Arena. Who scored the final goal of the game for the victorious Wales Conference drawing an assist from Gordie Howe in the process?
a) Ron Stackhouse b) Reed Larson c) Real Cloutier
Answer
c) Real Cloutier. Stackhouse, Larson and Craig Hartsburg all scored in a four goal third period for the Wales as they rolled to a 6-3 victory but it was Cloutier’s goal which drew an assist from Howe that brought the house down as the largest crowd up till then, 21,002 roared its approval for the man known as Mr. Hockey.
4) What was the first year that the NHL went to a three goalie format for the All-Star game?
a) 1990 b) 1992 c) 1994
Answer
b) 1992 in Philadelphia. For the first time the NHL opted for three goalies per team, allowing each to play a period. Representing the Campbell conference this year were Eddie Belfour, Tim Cheveldae and Kirk McLean. Campbell beat the Wales Conference 10-6 and the losing goalies on this night were Don Beaupre, Mike Richter and Patrick Roy. It should be noted for the record that Toe Blake who was coaching the all-star team in Toronto in 1968 used Terry Sawchuk, Eddie Giacomin and Glenn Hall with each of them getting a period of play but this simply was Blake’s preference for that game. It passed as an all-star rule in 1992. There also were no penalties called for the first time in all-star game history.
5) Which European player became the first to win game MVP honours in the mid season classic?
a) Peter Forsberg b) Pavel Bure c) Teemu Selanne
Answer
c) Teemu Selanne. Selanne represented Team World in the first of five consecutive all-star games featuring Team North America versus the World. The first of these was held in Vancouver on January 18, 1998 and despite Selanne’s hat trick and MVP award Team North America prevailed 8-7 with the winning goal coming early in the third period scored by Mark Messier and appropriately assisted by Wayne Gretzky. Of the five games played under this format Team North America would win three of them.
6) Who was the first son on an NHL all-star to appear in an all-star game?
a) Syl Apps Jr. b) Brett Hull c) Mark Howe
Answer
a) Syl Apps Jr. Not only did he appear in the game but he was voted the MVP. The contest took place at the Montreal Forum on January 21, 1975 with the Wales Conference hammering the Campbell Conference 7-1. Apps scored two goals on route to his MVP award. His father Syl Apps Sr. Played in the first all-star game in 1947 at Maple Leaf Gardens. The 1975 game also marked the first time that the Wales played the Campbell as previously it had been East versus West since the league had abandoned the defending Cup champions hosting the league all-stars.
7) Who recorded the first four goal game in NHL all-star history?
a) Guy Lafleur b) Mike Bossy c) Wayne Gretzky
Answer
c) In runaway fashion number 99 literally stole the show with a four goal outburst in the third period of the Campbell Conference’s victory over Wales on February 8, 1983 in Uniondale, NY. The final score was 9-3 and Gretzky’s four goals and one each by Lanny McDonald and Rick Vaive sealed the deal for the Campbell. Gretzky was of course voted the game MVP prompting a great quote from beleaguered Wales’s goalie John Garrett, ‘he stole the car from me,’
Who was the first player to record a hat trick in NHL all-star action?
a) Rocket Richard b) Ted Lindsay c) Gordie Howe
Answer
b) Ted Lindsay. Lindsay notched three goals and picked up an assist as the defending Cup champion Red Wings beat the all-stars 7-1 in Detroit at the Olympia on October 8, 1950. Lindsay’s three goals included one just 19 seconds into the game and he completed his hat trick with the first shorthanded goal in all-star game history. He also registered an assist for a four point night as the Production line of Lindsay, Gordie Howe and Sid Abel recorded seven points including Gordie Howe’s first all-star game goal. This was the smallest crowd in all-star history, 9,166 fans.
9) In the tenth all-star game played at the Montreal Forum on October 9, 1956 a new rule was introduced for the first time in the NHL. What was that rule?
a) a player was allowed to leave the penalty box after a power play goal was scored b) goaltenders were no longer penalized for skating out of their net to play the puck c) the tag up offside rule was introduced for the first time.
Answer
a) For the first time in the history of the NHL a penalized player was allowed to leave the box after a power play goal was scored. Montreal’s only goal in the 1-1 tie with the all-stars was a power play marker scored by Rocket Richard with Red Sullivan off holding. The power play goal came 33 seconds into the penalty.
10) The Young Guns game was first introduced in 2002. Which player recorded seven goals in this inaugural contest?
a) Mike Comrie b) Dany Heatley c) Ilya Kovalchuk
Answer
c) Ilya Kovalchuk scored seven goals in Team Melrose’s 13-7 victory over Team Fox in the first ever Young Guns game held at the Staples Center in LA on February 1, 2002. Dan Blackburn representing the New York Rangers had the misfortune of being in nets for this entire contest. One of Kovalchuck’s goals was scored on a penalty shot.
11) Some of the early all-star games were particularly rough and included several fights. One such contest was the seventh game held at the Montreal Forum on October 3, 1953. The All-Stars beat Montreal 3-1 and dropping the gloves in the third period were two players, Montreal’s Bert Olmstead and a player who only had four fights in his entire NHL career. Who was that player?
a) Bill Gadsby b) Alex Delvecchio c) Red Kelly
Answer
c) Leonard ‘Red’ Kelly. Kelly was a perennial candidate for the Lady Byng Trophy but early the third period with Montreal pushing hard to get on the board Kelly and Olmstead dropped the gloves. It was the second fight in all-star game history after Gordie Howe of Detroit and Gus Mortson of the Leafs squared off in the 1948 contest.
12) What was the first year an All-Star game went into overtime?
a) 1968 b) 1978 c) 1988
Answer
b) 1975. The home town fans were screaming in Buffalo at the Auditorium on January 24, 1978 when the Sabres Rick Martin scored late in the third period to force overtime and Gilbert Perreault fired home the winner in OT helping the Wales Conference to a 3-2 victory over the Campbell Conference. Martin’s goal was assisted by LA’s Marcel Dionne and Boston’s Terry O’Reilly while Perreault’s winner was scored with help from Montreal’s Steve Shutt and Toronto’s Borje Salming. Despite the hometown heroics the game MVP went to the Islanders Billy Smith who stopped sixteen shots in his thirty minutes of action, allowing no goals on the Wales side.
13) Who holds the All-Star record for the most assists in one game?
a) Mats Naslund b) Mario Lemieux c) Joe Sakic
Answer
a) Mats Naslund of the Montreal Canadiens. Naslund had the good fortune to be playing on a line with Mario Lemieux for most of the 39th All-Star contest held on February 9, 1988 at the St. Louis Arena. Naslund assisted on three of the four goals scored by Lemieux including the game winner in overtime and he also assisted goals scored by Tomas Sandstrom of the New York Rangers and Peter Stastny of the Quebec Nordiques. Despite his heroics he was overshadowed by Mario Lemieux who along with his three goals he recorded three assists for a six point night which is still a single game record for most points in a game. Lemieux also picked up the game MVP award in the 6-5 victory for the Wales Conference over the Campbell side.
14) For decades many All-Star players had to give up their usual sweater number to another player who had seniority on that number. Such is not the case anymore where players will now wear the number they are accustomed to with their club team. Not so back in the day. What number did Bobby Orr wear in his first all-star game in 1968?
a) Two b) five c) twenty-seven
Answer
b) Five. Orr had worn two throughout most of his junior career. And his first number in Boston at his first training camp was twenty-seven but in his first all star game held at Maple Leaf Gardens on January 16, 1968 Orr took number five as his usual number four went to Montreal’s Jean Beliveau. Orr recorded his first all-star point in this contest, an assist on a goal by Detroit’s Norm Ullman as the all-star’s closed the gap on the defending Cup champion Leafs to one goal, 4-3. That was how the game ended. This marked the last time that the defending Cup champs would play a collection of the league’s all-stars. Ullman would be dealt to Toronto in a huge trade two months later. The game was also marked by a moment of silence for Minnesota’s Bill Masterton who had died the day before after hitting his head on the ice in a game against Oakland just a few days prior. Masterton’s death prompted the Leafs Brian Conacher to don a helmet making him the first player in an all-star game to wear a helmet.
15) What was the first set of brothers to play in an All-Star game?
a) Rocket and Henri Richard b) Gordie and Vic Howe c) Max and Doug Bentley
Answer
c) Max and Doug Bentley. In the first game ever, October 13, 1947 in Toronto at Maple Leaf Gardens the Bentley brothers representing the Chicago Blackhawks became the first set of brothers to play in an all-star game. And they contributed greatly with Max scoring the All-Stars third goal and Doug getting the fourth and eventual game winner in the All-Stars 4-3 win over the defending Cup champs.
16) What was the first year an All-Star game featured a shootout?
a) 2003 b) 2006 c) 2008
Answer
a) 2003. Dany Heatley provided the fireworks during regulation time scoring four consecutive goals for the Eastern Conference all-stars and adding an assist that helped tie the game at five. A five minute overtime period solved nothing and the new rule in place was to implement a shootout. Heatley even scored in the shootout, the lone Eastern representative to do so however he and the East were overshadowed by shootout goals by Marcus Naslund, Bill Guerin and Paul Kariya who helped the Western Conference to a 6-5 official win. The game was played at the Office Depot Center in Sunrise, Florida on February 2, 2003. Heatley was named the game’s MVP.
17) What player scored a game winning goal in an All-Star game who only the year before had been waived by every team in the NHL?
a) Terry Harper b) Greg Polis c) Bobby Schmautz
Answer
c) Bobby Schmautz. Representing the Vancouver Canucks in Madison Square Garden on January 30, 1973, Schmautz scored what proved to be the game winner for the East in their see saw battle with the Western Conference in the 26th edition of the All-Star game. Vancouver in the east you ask? Yes, when Vancouver first joined the NHL in 1970 along with the Buffalo Sabres they were placed in the Eastern Conference. Schmautz struggled the season before to the extent that the Canucks placed him on waivers, there were no claims and he spent a bit of time in the AHL. Such was not the case in 1972-73. He rolled right off that all-star game winner and continued his hot hand scoring 38 times that season. Greg Polis would be named All-Star MVP in this contest arriving only hours after the birth of his first child. Polis was representing the Pittsburgh Penguins. Terry Harper, then with the LA Kings also had a very strong game scoring what was the tying goal at the time for the West.
18) Who was the first two time MVP of the All-Star game?
a) Jean Beliveau b) Bobby Orr c) Bobby Hull
Answer
c) Bobby Hull. Hull scored a goal and added an assist in the East’s 4-1 win over the West in the 1970 contest played in St. Louis and scored the game winner in the 1971 contest played in Boston for the first time. Hull’s game winner helped the West win the low scoring contest 2-1. Chicago had moved to the West Division at the start of the season. In addition the 1971 game marked the end of Gordie Howe’s consecutive all-star games played mark at fourteen. Hull joined his brother Dennis in the game that featured two other sets of brothers, the Mahovlich’s, Frank and Peter representing the Montreal Canadiens and the Esposito’s, Phil and Tony who were opposing each other, the first set of brothers to do since the Bentley’s in 1949 when Doug was with Chicago and Max was with the defending Cup champion Toronto Maple Leafs.
19) What three players all drafted in the same year combined on the game winning goal for the Wales conference in Vancouver in 1977?
a) Lanny McDonald, Bob Gainey and Peter McNab b) Marcel Dionne, Rick Martin and Guy Lafleur c) Gilbert Perreault, Larry Robinson and Jean Pronovost
Answer
b) Lafleur went first overall, Marcel Dionne second and Rick Martin fifth in the 1971 amateur draft. Nearly six years later in the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver on January 25, 1977, Rick Martin’s second goal of the period proved to be the game winner with 1:56 to play. Lafleur and Dionne assisted the marker. Martin would go on to take the game MVP honours in the Wales 4-3 victory.
20) How many benefit games were played prior to the NHL adopting the official All-Star game in 1947?
a) Three b) four c) five
Answer
b) Four. This is an answer that is not commonly known. Benefit games were played in Montreal in 1939 on October 29th for Babe Siebert who had drowned in August of that year. Siebert was a former player and had been named coach of the Montreal Canadiens that summer when tragedy struck. November 2, 1937 was the year of the Howie Morenz benefit game to help raise funds for his family after the untimely passing of Morenz earlier that year. The Ace Bailey Benefit game was held in Toronto on February 14, 1934 and the first such benefit game was held on December 15th, 1917 between the Montreal Canadiens and the Montreal Wanderer’s with proceeds going to the people who were left homeless by the massive explosion in Halifax, Nova Scotia on December 5th, 1917.
