NHL All Star committee’s directors will try a new way to organize the NHL All Star tournament on January 30 and 31. For the first time in a NHL All Star tournament, the games will be played in a 3-on-3 format and there will be four teams instead of the traditional two.

There will be four teams this year in the NHL all star games, one team per division. Each team will be made up of eleven players: six forwards, three defenders and two goalies. Fans have voted to elect captains: Jaromir Jagr for the atlantic, Alex Ovechkin for the metropolitan, Patrick Kane for the central, and John Scott for the pacific division. Ovechkin said  it is a huge honor to be a captain for an all star team. According to a survey to choose which team is the best, the Central division team  earned 36% of the votes.

The All Star’s committee  has decided to try a new game format. There will be three games of 20 minutes between the four teams. For the semi final games the Atlantic division’s team will face the Metropolitan division and the Pacific division will face the Central division. Each winner of these matches will meet each other for the final. The winning team will win a 1 million dollar. Teams will change ends after 10 minutes and if the score is tied, there will be a shootout to determine the winner.

The traditional skill competition will be held on January 30th. Even tough there is one team per division, the skill competition will be between the eastern and western conference. The winning team will decide which teams will play the first game. Just like the previous years, the fastest skater, the breakaway challenge, the accuracy shooting, and the hardest shot trial will all take place during the popular skill competition in Nashville.

According to Bill Daly, the NHL Deputy  Commissioner, the NHL All Star weekend is a chance for fans, players, clubs and business partners to come in Nashville and celebrate the game at his highest level. Many players also said that the new format will be a good chance to show their talents to fans. A lot of fans seem happy with this new creative way to deal with the NHL All Star Tournament.

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