The 2015 National Hockey League All-Star Game was an exhibition ice hockey game played on January 25, 2015. The game was held in Columbus, Ohio, for the first time, at Nationwide Arena, home of the Columbus Blue Jackets. The team captains were chosen by NHL Hockey Operations: Nick Foligno of the All-Star Game-hosting Blue Jackets served as captain for the home team, and Jonathan Toews of the Chicago Blackhawks served for the away team. Team Toews won the game 17–12, as the teams and players broke a variety of All-Star Game scoring records.

Columbus was originally scheduled to host the All-Star Game on January 27, 2013.^[1] However, the game was postponed for two years, first because of the 2012–13 NHL lockout^[2] and then due to the league's participation in the 2014 Winter Olympics tournament.^[3][4]

On January 1, 2015, six players were voted into the All-Star Game over seven weeks of online voting. Five Chicago Blackhawks players were voted in: forwards Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, defensemen Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook and goaltender Corey Crawford. The only player voted in as a member of a different team was forward Zemgus Girgensons of the Buffalo Sabres,^[5] who was the most voted overall due to a campaign in his native Latvia.^[6]

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Players voted into the All-Star Game

Nat.	#	Player	Team	Pos.	Votes
	28	Zemgus Girgensons	Buffalo Sabres	C	1,574,896
	88	Patrick Kane	Chicago Blackhawks	RW	1,232,201
	19	Jonathan Toews	Chicago Blackhawks	C	1,217,210
	2	Duncan Keith	Chicago Blackhawks	D	1,198,173
	50	Corey Crawford	Chicago Blackhawks	G	1,099,504
	7	Brent Seabrook	Chicago Blackhawks	D	1,016,992

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Peter Laviolette of the Nashville Predators and Darryl Sutter of the Los Angeles Kings were named coaches for the game on January 9, 2015.^[7] On January 14, 2015, the league announced the captains for the game would be Jonathan Toews and Nick Foligno. Being a player for the hometown Columbus Blue Jackets, Foligno's team was the home team. Drew Doughty and Patrick Kane served as alternate captains for Team Foligno while Ryan Getzlaf and Rick Nash served the same role for Team Toews.^[8]

A draft to select teams was held two days prior to the game, on January 23, 2015. The captains and alternate captains from each team sat together and selected players throughout 18 rounds. In past years, the last player picked would receive a new car; during this draft, the final two picks Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Filip Forsberg were voted onto their teams by online fan voting and as a result, both players received 2015 Honda Accords. The rules during the draft required all goaltenders to have been selected by the end of the 10th round and all defensemen by the end of the 15th.^[9]

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Team Foligno (Home)[10][11] Entry Nat. Player Team Pos. # C Nick Foligno Columbus Blue Jackets LW 71 A Patrick Kane Chicago Blackhawks RW 88 A Drew Doughty Los Angeles Kings D 8 1 Ryan Johansen Columbus Blue Jackets C 19 3 Duncan Keith Chicago Blackhawks D 2 5 Anze Kopitar Los Angeles Kings C 11 7 Steven Stamkos Tampa Bay Lightning C 91 9 Phil Kessel [lower-alpha 1] Toronto Maple Leafs RW 81 11 Carey Price Montreal Canadiens G 31 13 Claude Giroux Philadelphia Flyers C 28 15 Dustin Byfuglien Winnipeg Jets D 33 17 Marc-Andre Fleury Pittsburgh Penguins G 29 19 Brian Elliott St. Louis Blues G 1 21 Brent Burns San Jose Sharks D 88 23 Jonathan Drouin [lower-alpha 2] Tampa Bay Lightning LW 27 23 Jiri Sekac [lower-alpha 2] Montreal Canadiens LW 26 25 Kevin Shattenkirk St. Louis Blues D 22 27 Bobby Ryan Ottawa Senators RW 6 29 Radim Vrbata Vancouver Canucks RW 17 31 Oliver Ekman-Larsson Arizona Coyotes D 23 33 Zemgus Girgensons Buffalo Sabres C 28 35 Alexander Ovechkin Washington Capitals LW 8 36 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins Edmonton Oilers C 93

Team Toews (Away)[10][11] Entry Nat. Player Team Pos. # C Jonathan Toews Chicago Blackhawks C 19 A Ryan Getzlaf Anaheim Ducks C 15 A Rick Nash New York Rangers LW 61 2 Tyler Seguin [lower-alpha 1] Dallas Stars C 91 4 Shea Weber Nashville Predators D 6 6 Jakub Voracek Philadelphia Flyers RW 93 8 Corey Crawford Chicago Blackhawks G 50 10 John Tavares New York Islanders C 91 12 Roberto Luongo Florida Panthers G 1 14 Brent Seabrook Chicago Blackhawks D 7 16 Vladimir Tarasenko St. Louis Blues RW 91 18 Patrice Bergeron Boston Bruins C 37 20 Jaroslav Halak New York Islanders G 41 22 Johnny Gaudreau Calgary Flames LW 13 22 Mike Hoffman [lower-alpha 2] Ottawa Senators LW 68 24 Aaron Ekblad Florida Panthers D 5 26 Patrik Elias New Jersey Devils C 26 28 Ryan Suter Minnesota Wild D 20 30 Mark Giordano Calgary Flames D 5 32 Justin Faulk Carolina Hurricanes D 27 36 Filip Forsberg Nashville Predators C 9

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Rookies

The rookies only competed in the NHL All-Star Skills Competition on Saturday, Jan. 24,^[12] with the exception of Ekblad, Forsberg and Gaudreau, who were promoted to the All-Star Game as injury replacements.^[13]

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All-Star Skills Competition Rookies^[12]

Nat.	Player	Team	Pos.	Num.
	Johnny Gaudreau	Calgary Flames	LW	13
	Jiri Sekac	Montreal Canadiens	LW	26
	Filip Forsberg	Nashville Predators	C	9
	Mike Hoffman	Ottawa Senators	LW	68
	Jonathan Drouin	Tampa Bay Lightning	LW	27
	Aaron Ekblad	Florida Panthers	D	5

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Withdrawn

Prior to the draft, seven players withdrew due to injuries. Only six of seven withdrawn players were replaced by the beginning of the All-Star weekend, leaving an uneven number of players to compete in the All-Star Game. Ultimately, it was Team Toews who had one less player after the draft. Although Sidney Crosby originally did not have a replacement named, it was later decided that skills competition rookie Johnny Gaudreau would take his spot in the game. Three withdrawn players were eventually replaced by rookies who were originally slated to only participate in the skills competitions, while four others were replaced by other NHL players assigned to the Game by the league.^[9] The day of the game, Tyler Johnson withdrew due to a lower-body injury; although already having been selected to Team Toews, a replacement was not named and the team's roster remained reduced by two players.^[15]

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All-Star Game Withdrawn Players^[10]

Nat.	Name	Team	Pos.	Reason and replacement
	Tanner Pearson	Los Angeles Kings	LW	Broken leg, replaced by Jiri Sekac[16]
	Jimmy Howard	Detroit Red Wings	G	Groin injury, replaced by Marc-Andre Fleury[17]
	Pekka Rinne	Nashville Predators	G	Sprained knee, replaced by Jaroslav Halak[17]
	Sergei Bobrovsky	Columbus Blue Jackets	G	Groin injury, replaced by Brian Elliott[18]
	Evgeni Malkin	Pittsburgh Penguins	C	Lower-body injury, replaced by Filip Forsberg[19]
	Sidney Crosby	Pittsburgh Penguins	C	Lower-body injury, replaced by Johnny Gaudreau[20]
	Erik Johnson	Colorado Avalanche	D	Lower-body injury, replaced by Aaron Ekblad[21]
	Tyler Johnson	Tampa Bay Lightning	C	Lower-body injury, no replacement[15] [lower-alpha 1]

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1. Johnson was selected to Team Toews as the 34th entry at the draft but withdrew the day of the game

For the first All-Star Game in three years, Reebok sought to do something a bit different. Instead of traditional color designs, Reebok chose to incorporate a color they referred to as "elite green" as the primary trim color of their uniforms for this game. The color had been in use on the inside collars of the Reebok Edge jersey, but this marked its first (and, to date, only) use as a visible uniform color. Following on the use of chromed logos in the 2014 NHL Stadium Series, the NHL shields on the front of the All-Star uniforms were also given a chrome treatment, with two stars added inside the NHL shield to represent the two conferences (despite the game not using a conference format).^[22]

The game was played from 5 pm until 8 pm, local Eastern Time. It was broadcast nationally in Canada on CBC and in the United States on NBCSN. Locksley, Fall Out Boy and O.A.R. performed before the game and during intermissions one and two, respectively. Columbus Blue Jackets anthem singer Leo Welsh sang a bilingual version of the Canadian national anthem while country singer Jo Dee Messina sang the American national anthem. The referees for the game were Chris Rooney and Chris Lee, while Tony Sericolo and Steve Miller served as linesman.^[23]

Team Toews won the game by a score of 17–12, setting a new record for most goals by a team in an All-Star Game, surpassing the previous record of 16 set in the 1993 game by the Wales Conference team. Every skater on the winning team recorded at least one point during the game. The two teams combined for a total of 29 goals, besting the previous record of 26 set in the 2001 game between teams North America and World. Another record broken was the number of second period goals, as the 11 total goals was one higher than the previous record of 10, achieved four times (most recently in 2009). At the end of the game, Ryan Johansen of the hometown Columbus Blue Jackets won the most valuable player award by result of an online fan vote.^[24]

New York Islanders captain John Tavares scored four goals, becoming only the sixth player in All-Star game history to score that many in a game, and the first since Dany Heatley in 2003. Jakub Voracek of the Philadelphia Flyers scored six points (three goals and three assists) which tied a record set by Mario Lemieux. A record was also broken for quickest back-to-back goals by Minnesota Wild defenseman Ryan Suter and Flyers' captain Claude Giroux, after they scored eight seconds apart.^[24]