2009 National Hockey League All-Star Game
The 2009 National Hockey League All-Star Game was held at the Bell Centre in Montreal, home of the Montreal Canadiens, in conjunction with the Montreal Canadiens centennial celebrations on Sunday evening, January 25, 2009. The game was held between two teams, each representing a conference of the National Hockey League. The Eastern Conference team won the game 12–11, decided by shootout.
The game was part of a weekend of activities. On Saturday, a game featuring NHL rookies and sophomores preceded a skills competition among the NHL players, called the NHL All-Star Game SuperSkills Competition. In a first for the All-Star Game, the "Breakaway Challenge," a part of the skills competition, had fans voting for the winner using their mobile phones, with the real-time voting results posted on the NHL's website. The game was preceded by a circus arts display and a concert was held between the second and third periods.
Skills Competition
Unlike previous years, the Skills Competition did not have players playing on the behalf of their respective conferences and the team-based Obstacle Course was removed. In addition, YoungStars players became eligible to play in the Fastest Skater, Hardest Shot, Shooting Accuracy, and Breakaway Challenge events.In reaction to the changed format for the skills competition the year before, the Fastest Skater event reverted to the traditional one-lap format. The breakaway challenge used Jason Maggio, a local minor hockey goaltender defending the goal as well as the player being able to take as many shots as possible in one minute. Finally, instead of being a judged competition, the breakaway challenge allowed the public to vote for the winner via text messaging. The public chose Alexander Ovechkin, whose highlight was a shot using two sticks while wearing a series of props provided by Evgeni Malkin, by a landslide, with 47% of the votes. Malkin won the shooting accuracy over Dany Heatley in a sudden death shoot-off after both scored 4-for-4 in the preliminaries. Malkin shot 3-4, missing the last target, while Heatley hit his first two but missed on the third. Andrew Cogliano walked off as the winner of the Fastest Skater competition.
The Hardest Shot competition was played for charity, with each competitor contributing $1,000, to be matched by their team and the league, as well as the National Hockey League Players' Association, for a total of $24,000 to the charity chosen by the winner of the competition. Zdeno Chara won the event, with a record 105.4 mph shot. The Elimination Shootout involved all 40 skaters, with the goaltenders being able to choose which skaters they will face off against. The field was narrowed from 40 to just 12 after one round, and Shane Doan eventually outlasted Marc Savard after seven rounds.
YoungStars Game
For the first time, the YoungStars game, part of the Skills Competition featured a three-on-three rookies versus sophomores format, consisting of three six-minute periods with the clock stopping only within the last minute of each game. Coaching the rookies was Luc Robitaille and for the sophomores was Pete Mahovlich. Unlike the previous All-Star Game, YoungStars goaltenders were named prior to the game, though sophomore goaltender Carey Price volunteered to do double duty after Erik Ersberg withdrew from the game due to injury. The game saw rookie goaltender Pekka Rinne make 20 saves in a 9–5 victory for the rookies. Rookie Blake Wheeler was named the MVP of the YoungStars game after scoring four goals.Roster
| Period 1 | Period 2 | Period 3 | Final | |
| Sophomores | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
| Rookies | 3 | 4 | 2 | 9 |
- Milan Lucic was named to the YoungStars game, but did not play.
- Erik Ersberg was named to the YoungStars game, but did not play.
- Steve Mason was named to the YoungStars game, but did not play
- Nicklas Backstrom was named to the YoungStars game, but did not play.
Absentee punishment
Rosters
Fan voting for the All-Star Game starting line-up was closed on January 2, 2009. The rosters were announced on January 3 by retired Canadian Hockey Hall of Fame player Jean Beliveau, who played in 13 All-Star games during his career.| Eastern Conference | Western Conference | |
| Coach: |  Claude Julien | Todd McLellan |
| Assistant Coach: | Guy Carbonneau | Mike Babcock |
| Captains: |  Alexei Kovalev | Joe Thornton |
| Starters: | 31 – G Carey Price  44 – D Mike Komisarek 79 – D Andrei Markov 71 – F Evgeni Malkin 4 – F Vincent Lecavalier 27 – F Alexei Kovalev - | 35 – G Jean-Sebastien Giguere 27 – D Scott Niedermayer 51 – D Brian Campbell 15 – F Ryan Getzlaf 19 – F Jonathan Toews 88 – F Patrick Kane |
| Reserves: | 30 – G Tim Thomas  35 – G Henrik Lundqvist  2 – D Mark Streit 3 – D Jay Bouwmeester  15 – D Tomas Kaberle  33 – D Zdeno Chara 7 – F Jeff Carter 8 – F Alexander Ovechkin 9 – F Zach Parise 12 – F Eric Staal 17 – F Ilya Kovalchuk  20 – F Thomas Vanek 26 – F Martin St. Louis 51 – F Dany Heatley 91 – F Marc Savard | 1 – G Roberto Luongo  32 – G Niklas Backstrom 3 – D Stephane Robidas 6 – D Shea Weber 22 – D Dan Boyle 44 – D Sheldon Souray 7 – F Keith Tkachuk 9 – F Mike Modano 10 – F Patrick Marleau 12 – F Jarome Iginla 18 – F Shane Doan 23 – F Milan Hejduk 24 – F Dustin Brown 61 – F Rick Nash 97 – F Joe Thornton - |
Referees: Marc Joannette and Brad Meier
Linesmen: Greg Devorski and Pierre Racicot